Actelion urges shareholders to reject Elliott proposals

Switzerland-based Actelion (ATLN: VX), Europe’s largest biotech company, has sent a letter to shareholders encouraging them to reject an attempt by the UK’s Elliott Advisors, which has a stake of around 6% in the firm, to take control of the board and says  that two if its current directors have rejected requests to support the takeover initiative.

The letter says that the UK investor offered no viable strategy and was instead pushing for a quick sale of the biotechnology company, which it claims has a sound financial profile, a global infrastructure, a highly productive drug discovery engine and a promising pipeline of compounds. “We are poised to build further value,” said Actelion.

Despite this strong track record, Elliott Advisors, a relatively new shareholder, is seeking to force a transaction at a time when Actelion's robust product pipeline is fast approaching key near-term milestones. Actelion's current directors, who have overseen the successful development and commercialization of many products at Actelion and other companies, expect the pipeline to deliver substantial value for shareholders. Elliott's objective, therefore, is an ill-timed attempt that would surrender to a potential acquirer the future value that rightly belongs to all shareholders. According to a recent newspaper article concerning their proposed changes, an Elliott representative made reference to "Ground Zero," which Actelion believes “this is both inflammatory and completely inappropriate (Financial Times Deutschland, 23 March 2011).”