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Takeda completes Shire acquisition

pharmafile | January 8, 2019 | News story | Manufacturing and Production M&A, MA, Shire, Takeda, acquisition, deal, pharma 

Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceuticals has successfully completed its acquisition of Shire Plc. The long anticipated deal has propelled the firm into the top ten biggest pharmaceutical companies worldwide.

The $60 billion takeover is expected to nearly double Takeda’s annual consolidated sales to $31.3 billion. With an expanded global reach, Takeda now holds leading positions in both the US and Japan. The company will retain its focus on Oncology, GI, Neuroscience, Rare Diseases and PDT.

The huge deal has however made Takeda one of the most indebted drugmakers in the world as experts warn of a potential credit downgrade. Takeda responded in suggesting that: “The company is confident that it will retain its investment grade credit rating and return to a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.0x or less within three to five years following completion.”

Takeda does however plan to cut thousands of jobs as it culls duplicate research programmes in an effort to pay off debts quickly. The merger is hoped to save at least $1.4 billion a year by 2021 while also increasing Takeda’s debt to more than 5 trillion yen ($45 billion) more than ten times the amount of debt the company had before the acquisition.

Shares in Takeda have still yet to recover to the rate at which they sat before the announcement of the deal in March of last year.

Takeda’s French born CEO Christophe Weber commented: “We are delighted that the acquisition was approved by an overwhelming majority of our shareholders at Takeda’s extraordinary general meeting on December 5th, 2018. We are also pleased to have completed the acquisition several months earlier than expected, which was enabled through the hard work of our respective organizations and the smooth receipt of regulatory clearances,”

“We appreciate the support of our employees, partners and shareholders throughout the process. This marks a significant moment in Takeda’s history and is an exciting step forward as we accelerate our transformation journey to deliver highly-innovative medicines to patients around the world with expanded scale and geographical footprint.

Louis Goss

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