Nycomed agrees to 9.6 billion euros takeover by Takeda

Despite just yesterday again saying that it "has not agreed to any such an agreement," this morning Takeda (TSE: 4502) declared that it has in fact reached an accord to acquire Swiss independent drugmaker Nycomed, in a deal valuing the Zurich-headquartered company at 9.6 billion euros ($13.68 billion) on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

The boards of directors of each company unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to be completed within 90 to 120 days, making Nycomed a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda, Japan’s largest pharmaceutical firm, subject to antitrust clearance. The purchase would exclude Nycomed's US dermatology business, which had sales of 332.9 million euros last year.

The sellers of Nycomed are Nordic Capital, which owns 41% of the Swiss firm, DLJ Merchant Banking, which holds 25.6%, Coller International Partners which has 9.7% and Avista which owns 8.9%.