Teva is expanding its operations in Spain with the acquisition of USA-headquartered Bentley Pharmaceuticals.
The Israeli drugmaker says that it has agreed to pay $360 million, or $15.02 per share, for Bentley, which is actually headquartered in New Hampshire, USA. The deal represents a premium of over 9% on the latter’s share price on March 28 and will take place once Bentley spins off its drug-delivery unit C-Pex Pharmaceuticals to its shareholders, an arrangement the firm announced last October.
Bentley’s main business is in generics and principally markets its 130 products in Spain as well as other parts of the European Union. The generics business also includes finished dosage and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facilities and brought in revenues last year of approximately $114 million.
Commenting on the deal, Teva’s chief executive Shlomo Yanai said that Bentley will combine well with its Spanish subsidiary which was set up in 2004 and currently markets over 60 products. He added that “Spain was identified as one of our target markets in the strategic review we conducted last year” and the addition of Bentley will help it move up from being currently the fourth largest generic company in the country.
His counterpart at Bentley, James Murphy, said that by selling the generic operations while spinning off its drug delivery business, “we believe that we are maximising shareholder value”. The new entity will now sell over 170 products on the Spanish market and have 45 generics pending product registration.
Teva concluded by noting that the deal will be accretive within 12 months of closing and the agreement should close in the third quarter. The acquisition will be funded from its internal resources.
