Sanofi consider one or two large acquisitions in the U.S.
Posted by admin | Under advertising, blog, management, marketing, profitable Saturday Jul 3, 2010Sanofi-Aventis is planning acquisitions in the United States, including one or two that could cost him at least $ 15 billion, told Reuters a source familiar with the matter.
Speculation that laboratories such as Biogen, Genzyme and Allergan may be targets of the French pharmaceutical group drove up the price of these companies at the NYSE.
In the afternoon in New York, the action took 4.4% Biogen, Genzyme 5% and 6% with Allergan stock market valuations of approximately 13 billion, 13.5 billion and 18 billion dollars respectively.
The Board of Directors of Sanofi met in Paris this week and discussed several options for acquisitions, but no decision has been taken on potential targets, said the source told Reuters.
The latter, which is not authorized to speak to reporters, spoke on condition of anonymity.
In turn, a spokesman for Sanofi, the world number six from the pharmacy, simply stated that "the group's policy is to not comment on market rumors."
The Bloomberg had initially reported that Sanofi was preparing to acquire a U.S. company worth at least $ 20 billion.
GOOD STRATEGIC DECISION
Faced with competition from generic drugs, the group is actively looking for potential targets, which should enable it to find new sources of growth.
"In the big pharmaceutical companies, everyone is watching and there are whole departments that work on potential acquisitions," says Thierry Verrecchia, analyst at Raymond James.
The acquisition of a U.S. biotech is an excellent strategic decision, observed Fabian Wenner, an analyst at UBS.
"They need essentially biological expertise in antibodies," he says, adding that, therefore, Biogen and Allergan may be on the radar screen of Sanofi, while Amgen Bristol-Myers Squibb or appear to be too large pieces to swallow for French.
Sanofi announced Wednesday the acquisition of American TargeGen for some 560 million dollars (458.5 million euros), an operation designed to strengthen the group's positions in oncology.
The title Sanofi closed Friday at 47.06 euros, down 2.42%, giving a market capitalization of nearly 61.7 billion euros. The action has underperformed the DJ Stoxx sector index (-1.17%) and the CAC 40 (+0.25%). She has lost 12% since the beginning of the year.
"The share price decline as investors worried about the price. But if the acquisition was accretive, it would not be that bad," observes Fabian Wenner.