Anger as tobacco giant bids for UK asthma inhaler firm
A BRITISH inhaler-maker’s fate could be decided through a £1billion-plus auction.
The battle for asthma medicine firm Vectura has sparked a storm of protest as one of its US suitors is cigarette heavyweight Philip Morris International (PMI).
Doctors, politicians and health charities have slammed a big tobacco company taking over a firm that makes products treating smoking conditions.
PMI is up against American private equity giant Carlyle.
The takeover panel, which regulates such battles, yesterday announced it would kick off a five-day auction if Philip Morris and Carlyle do not make final offers by 5pm today.
The battle for Wiltshire- based Vectura began in late May when its board agreed a deal with Carlyle worth 136p-a-share.
But in early July the company instead backed a 150p-a-share offer from PMI, whose brands include Marlboro.
Then last Friday Vectura’s board settled on a 155p-a-share approach from Carlyle, worth almost £1billion.
PMI gatecrashed the takeover by upping its offer to 165p-a-share on Sunday. Vectura said it was withdrawing its recommendation for Carlyle’s bid but not recommending PMI’s latest proposal.
The FTSE-250 firm’s shares jumped to a five-year high yesterday, suggesting investors are banking on an auction bidding war.
Philip Morris says it wants Vectura as part of plans to move beyond nicotine.
It added that the British firm would be run as an “autonomous business unit that will form the backbone of PMI’s inhaled therapeutics business”.
Vectura said it “will make a further announcement after the end of the auction”.
But the American Lung Association and the American Thoracic Society called the move a “reprehensible choice” by Philip Morris.
They said: “We are deeply concerned that PMI will use the inhalation services technologies developed by Vectura to make their tobacco products more addictive.” The bodies called on the Government to stop the sale, adding their voices to similar demands from Labour.