Takeda nears Shire deal with $64b offer

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co reached a preliminary agreement to buy Shire Plc with a sweetened takeover offer of about £46 billion (Dh236 billion, $64 billion), closing in on a bold transaction to gain a foothold in one of the pharma industry’s most coveted niches.

The UK-listed company’s board said it was willing to recommend the latest offer to shareholders yesterday, capping a monthlong tug of war in which its Japanese suitor made five successively higher proposals, two of them in the last few days.

Chief Executive Officer Christophe Weber is steering Takeda into its largest-ever transaction to replenish the drugmaker’s pipeline of medicines with promising treatments for rare diseases such as haemophilia — a field that’s lured many pharmaceutical companies lately because they can charge more for unique life-saving drugs than for routine treatments. But the smaller Japanese company’s thirst for the larger Shire fuelled concern among investors and Takeda slumped the most in almost five years in Tokyo trading.

“Some investors hate the acquisition because of the financial risk,” said Naoki Fujiwara, chief fund manager for Shinkin Asset Management Co. “Others like it because it will strengthen Takeda’s engine of growth.” Japanese investors expressed concern about the hefty debt and the possibility Shire shareholders would sell their new Takeda stock, even as the company reiterated its commitment to its investment-grade credit rating.