Forest Labs to spend $2.9 billion on acquiring Aptalis

Confirming recent speculative reports, US drugmaker Forest Laboratories (NYSE: FRX) says it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aptalis, a privately held US based specialty gastrointestinal (GI) and cystic fibrosis company, for $2.9 billion in cash from its shareholders, including private investment firm TPG.

Shares of Forest, which is seeking new products to offset the loss of patent protection for its former top-selling drug, the antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram), leapt 13% to $66.48 in morning trading on Wednesday (January 8) following the announcement. The shares had increased 59% in the 12 months through yesterday, noted a Bloomberg report. The acquisition, which requires review by anti-trust authorities in the USA and Canada, is expected to be accretive to Forest’s fiscal-year 2015 non-generally-accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings per share. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2014.

Aptalis will help diversify the Forest business