Actelion said to be pondering a complex deal with J&J

29 November 2016

Shares of Swiss biotech Actelion (SIX: ATLN) fell more than 8%, after rising dramatically on Friday when the company confirmed it had received a takeover approach from US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and were still down 4.6% at $181.20 by mid afternoon.

The reason for the decline is a Financial Times report saying that Actelion, rather accepting an outright takeover, was considering a complicated deal to combine with part of J&J, which would leave Europe’s biggest biotech firm independent of the US giant. Actelion chief executive Jean-Paul Clozel has previously said that the company expected to remain independent.

The structured transaction would create a new, larger biotech firm uniting Actelion with relevant parts of J&J's pharma business (which mostly trades under the umbrella name of Janssen), with J&J becoming a major shareholder in the new business. J&J would become the majority shareholder of the new company, and could be asked to contribute some cash to complete the deal, the FT said, quoting people close to the discussion.

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