Sanofi to expand rare diseases leadership with $11.6 billion acquisition

France’s largest drugmaker Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) revealed this morning that it  has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Bioverativ (Nasdaq: BIVV) for $105 per share in cash, which represents a substantial 64% premium to Bioverativ's closing price on January 19, 2018.

The equity value of the proposed deal is approximately $11.6 billion (on a fully diluted basis). The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of Sanofi and Bioverativ, the hemophilia and other  rare blood disorders group spun out last year by US biotech major Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB).

Sanofi expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to its business earnings per share in the full 2018 financial year and up to 5% accretive for the following year. The transaction is expected to close within three months.