Yahoo Finance Shire falls at last for £46bn in biggest UK takeover by Japan
Takeda, the Japanese pharmaceuticals giant, on Tuesday has convinced Shire’s board to back a £46 billion takeover of the Dublin-based company at the fifth time of asking.
The deal is the biggest takeover of a foreign company by a Japanese buyer, dwarfing Softbank’s $40 billion (£30 billion) takeover of Sprint last year.
To clinch the deal Takeda raised its offer for Dublin-based Shire to over £49 a share, representing a 60% premium to Shire’s closing price of £30.70 on March 27, before the Japanese giant revealed its intentions.
The merger will bring together Takeda’s expertise in gastroenterology and neuroscience with Shire’s leading position in rare diseases. Shire shareholders will own approximately 50% of the combined group, with shares listed in Tokyo and New York.
Christophe Weber, chief executive of Takeda, who has overhauled the pharma group since he joined four years ago, said that science and R&D was behind Takeda’s ambition.
He said: “We will continue to invest in the R&D engine that we have built. Putting the two companies together will provide the scale to drive future development in two of the world’s leading markets, the US and Japan.”
Weber said the merger would deliver cost savings of at least $1.4 billion and anticipated up to 7% of the 52,000 combined workforce could be cut.
The deal is regarded as risky for Takeda, not least because it requires 75% approval from Shire shareholders, who may yet turn down the offer.
Takeda’s shares have fallen by 18% since it revealed it wanted to buy Shire, but were up 4% at 4015p today.
