Takeda shareholders try to buck Shire deal
pharmafile | June 11, 2018 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Shire, Takeda, biotech, drugs, pharma, pharmaceutical
A small group of Takeda shareholders have started making a lot of noise over its $62 billion deal for Shire, and they’re not happy.
Initially reported by the Financial Times, the story has now been picked up widely across the industry, as many begin to question how much support the small group can rally to sway the deal.
The group only makes up 1% of all shareholders in the company but contains members of the family that founded the Takeda company.
It is thought that the members of the group are working to build support for their action within the company, putting a spotlight on the negatives of the deal when Takeda is still looking to shore up its finances to complete the deal.
Only last week, the company announced that it entered a $7.5 billion loan credit agreement to part fund the Shire deal.
However, the Japan-based company will need to return to banks for further loans and any group looking to muddy the waters of the deal will generate the kind of PR Takeda’s leadership will be looking to avoid.
Prior to the deal completing, there were a number of question marks over the deal – not least the amount of debt the company would have to take on to complete the process.
Another angle to the deal is that it would shift the locus of the company away from Japanese shores, with Shire’s considerable presence in the US and UK bolstering its international infrastructure. This was part of Christophe Weber remit when he entered the job but would move away from the traditional nature of the business.
There have been previous calls for the acquisition to be put to a vote at the company’s general meeting on 28 June.
Ben Hargreaves
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