RE: RE: RE: Shire/AZ/Forest/BTI In the article posted by amillionorbust there were a few things that popped out at me after re-reading the article.
Some Opportunities:
"Soriot, a former Roche Holding AG executive who took over as CEO of AstraZeneca in October, said in a Jan. 31 interview that the company planned to revive growth by focusing on its existing businesses, and supplementing development with acquisitions of about $3 billion to $4 billion and licensing deals of as much as $600 million."
"He will unveil the company’s strategy to analysts on March 21 in New York."
"Given the “substantial” scale of AstraZeneca’s coming revenue gap, acquisitions and partnerships “will be forthcoming and will not come cheap,” Credit Suisse Group AG analysts, including Luisa Hector and Kerry Holford, wrote in a Feb. 1 note. It could take purchases of $20 billion to make up the sales shortfall, according to their note."
New Treatments:
“They’ve got to buy something with infrastructure they don’t already have,” he said
"In addition to Dublin-based Shire, Kepler’s Wenner said Forest, with a market value of $9.4 billion, also could be a good fit for AstraZeneca because they both have treatments for infections and respiratory and central nervous system diseases."
No Time:
"Soriot’s desire to preserve AstraZeneca’s credit rating -- which is AA- by Standard & Poor’s, the fourth-highest level of investment grade -- could limit the size of any deal. Still, with $7.7 billion of cash and $10.3 billion in debt, the company could spend $10 billion without triggering a downgrade, said Olaf Toelke, a credit analyst with S&P."
"“I would expect some quick changes,” Toelke said in a phone interview. “They’re running out of time. They really need to do something.”"
"“They’re going to have to spend a lot of money to get the assets that really count,” Malik said. “If they want to capture the imagination of shareholders, they should bite the bullet.”"
I've added these excerpts to fuel the buyout speculation, which to me, seems only a matter of time.
It's possible March 21 could be an important date...
What about Forest? They also have treatments for CNS diseases. I'm guessing they might need a little Transcend. They could be in the mix too.
Sniper