Short writeup - I haven't done a lot of work on this. Curious to know if anybody else here has an opinion on it. JNJ (306b) is buying ALIOY (30b) for $280 per share or $70 per ADR. Current ADR price is $68 for a ~3% spread.
- Deal is through a tender offer with a 67% minimum acceptance threshold. Given that there has been a bit of a bidding war and shares are now trading at ~$68 up from ~$35 in November the price looks to be on the high side (above analyst estimates, also at first glance at 30x FCF) and is supported by both boards. I see no particular reasons for the tender offer failing.
- Deal also makes sense for JNJ, relatively small and they can use overseas cash for it, which would be taxed otherwise anyway (or so I would think).
- According to the
press release deal is expected to close by the end of Q2 with the tender offer commencing next month.
The interesting part: JNJ will only take over the "core portfolio" of Actelion. Before the transaction, Actelion will spin off its research pipeline as a new company, called (very originally) R&D NewCo. NewCo will launch with ~$1b in cash according to the press release. Now, I'm no expert but if you are a 30b company and you spin off your R&D pipeline funded with 1b in cash then that should be worth something, right? Let's say at least 500m or ~$5 per share and probably more - these guys have a track record and are no biotech clowns.
So, depending on how you value the spinoff the spread is 5%-7% by my rough calculations. Looks quite juicy for a deal that is supposed to close in a few months. No tax inversion shenanigans, just a honest deal. Am i missing something? Swiss taxes? Antitrust issues? I couldn't find anything but what do I know ..
I bought a couple of shares.