Johnson & Johnson’s interest in Actelion as a takeover target may not yet have sparked a deal, but it has made founder and CEO Jean-Paul Clozel a billionaire.
Shares have climbed 24% since word of talks between the companies got out, Bloomberg reports, with shareholders cheering news of J&J’s initial $26 billion bid and, later, a sweetened offer. As a result, Clozel’s 5.03% stake in the Swiss biotech has climbed to $1.1 billion in value.
There’s just one issue: Clozel isn’t nearly as excited about striking a pact with the New Jersey company as his investors are. The chief exec doesn’t want to sell Actelion outright—the scenario J&J would prefer. Instead, it’s looking to join up with a piece of the pharma giant to form a new entity, of which J&J would become a major shareholder.
“He believes in an independent Actelion and he doesn’t believe in mergers just to create size,” Rx Securities managing director Samir Devani told the Financial Times of Clozel, who has already dodged an $18.9 billion bid from fellow rare-disease drugmaker Shire and recorded a 2011 triumph over activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors.
Meanwhile, Actelion’s surge in price may also have put off some other potential bidders. It’s now well out of the price range of rumored white knight prospect Novartis, for one, according to the company’s CEO.
“We have always said that we will concentrate on complementary acquisitions in the range of $2 billion to $5 billion,” Novartis head honcho Joe Jimenez told Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick.
Event-driven hedge funds, though, are still betting on an outright buy from J&J or another pharma peer. Dozens of them have socked money into the Swiss biotech firm, Reuters reports.
“This time it’s different. It has not been outright rejected. That’s an indication that you can go a little bit bigger,” Case Equity Partners managing partner Michael Wegener told the news service.
“We don’t think Clozel is going to fight,” another hedge fund manager added.
By Carly Helfand
Source: Fierce Pharma
CordenPharma announced its largest strategic investment to date, committing to spend ~€900m over the next three years to enhance its peptide technology platform. The planned investment consists of two major expansion initiatives occurring in parallel in the US and Europe, including both existing facilities and new constructions.
DSM-Firmenich has announced the sale of its MEG-3 fish oil business to KD Pharma Group, a contract development and manufacturing organisation that is active in pharmaceutical and nutritional lipids. As part of the transaction, DSM-Firmenich will obtain a minority stake of 29% in KD Pharma’s parent company O³ Holding GmbH.
Veranova, a development and manufacturing of specialist and complex APIs for the pharmaceutica l and biotech sectors, recently announced the appointment of Cécile Maupas as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. Cécile will join the executive team and assume responsibility for business development, marketing, project management, commercial operations, and product management.
