UCB SA Terminates $1.53 Billion Sale Of Generic Drug Unit To Buyout Firms
December 17, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Editor
U.S. regulators appear to have put the kibosh on a deal between UCB and the two buyers for its U.S. generic-drug business, private equity shops Advent International and Avista Capital Partners, after continued requests for informational studies conflicted with the timing and the financing of the $1.53 billion deal.
Belgian UCB said in a statement this week that it still intends to shed Kremers Urban Pharmaceuticals Inc but that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s additional requests for info on its generic version attention deficit hyperactivity disorder made this particular deal untenable.
“We are of course disappointed that we could not complete the transaction as planned at this time but believe that the mutual termination is the right step to allow time for the needed evaluation of the best way forward and as a result to create the most value,” said UCB Chief Financial Officer Detlef Thielgen in a statement.
UCB said at the time it planned to roll the money from the sale back into its pipeline of drugs for drugs for the central nervous system illnesses and immunology. It also intended to pare down its debt and invest in new medicines.
UCB had announced the deal less than two months ago on Nov. 7 and the market had immediately reacted unfavorably, because Kremers as a stand-alone business is more profitable than UCB as a whole.
That may tempt the drugmaker to wait on selling the unit in order to push its profit margins back up, after taking a 30 percent revised haircut for its 2017-2018 projections upon announcing the sale.
"While we are working on clarifying the situation around methylphenidate ER we will continue the divestiture process for Kremers Urban," said Thielgen.
The company said that the news will impact its 2014 financial outlook, including a projected total revenue of $3.94 billion $4.07 billion and underlying profits of $735.54 million to $772.94 million.