Baxalta Rejects Shire's Unsolicited $30 Bln Takover Bid

(RTTNews) - Baxalta Inc. (BXLT) on Tuesday rejected an unsolicited $30 billion takeover bid from Ireland-based pharmaceutical company Shire plc (SHPG, SHP.L), saying that its board of directors determined the offer is not in the best interests of Baxalta or its shareholders.

Wayne Hockmeyer, Chairman of the Board of Baxalta said, "The Board today reaffirmed its conclusion that Shire's proposal significantly undervalues Baxalta and its attractive prospects for growth and value creation, and that a merger at this time would be severely disruptive at this very early stage of Baxalta's existence as a public company and presents a significant and real risk to value creation for our shareholders."

Baxalta, which was spun off from healthcare company Baxter International Inc. (BAX) in early July, noted that it received this same proposal privately from Shire on July 10, 2015.

Shire had confirmed earlier on Tuesday that it made a proposal in July to acquire Baxalta and combine the two companies in an all-stock transaction valued at about $30 billion.

Under the offer, Baxalta shareholders would receive 0.1687 Shire ADRs for each Baxalta share. The proposal implies a value of $45.23 per Baxalta share and represents a 36 percent premium over Baxalta's stock price as of August 3, 2015.

In a letter to Shire's CEO Flemming Omskov, Baxalta's CEO Ludwig Hantson said that Baxalta's board unanimously concluded that it is not prepared to engage with Shire in a discussion about a combination of the companies based on the value indicated by Shire in its proposal and other important factors.

"Our board strongly believes that Baxalta's independent global infrastructure and world-class manufacturing operations will provide an excellent platform to grow value for our shareholders. As a new, publicly-traded entity only since July 1, we are just in the initial stages of implementing our growth strategy as a standalone company and our stock has not yet achieved a price level that appropriately reflects the company's value and prospects," Hantson said in the letter.

Baxalta is a provider of therapeutic treatments for people with rare conditions, chronic diseases or limited treatment options.

BXLT closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $37.10, up $3.95 11.92 percent on a volume of 41.14 million shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $0.56 or 1.51 percent to $37.66.