Irish takeover panel rejects Perrigo's request over Mylan offer

Offer from Mylan remains valid and capable of acceptance by Perrigo shareholders

Perrigo chief executive Joe Papa. The Irish Takeover Panel said on Tuesday that it had rejected Perrigo’s request to declare Mylan’s unsolicited tender offer lapsed. Photo: Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times

The Irish Takeover Panel said on Tuesday that it had rejected Perrigo’s request to declare Mylan’s unsolicited tender offer lapsed.

The offer from Mylan remains lawful and valid and fully capable of acceptance by all Perrigo shareholders including Israeli ones, the takeover panel said.

Perrigo, headquartered in the Republic of Ireland, had earlier sought a ruling from the panel saying that Mylan had breached Irish Securities Law by allegedly failing to make a valid offer to Perrigo’s Israel shareholders by September 14.

Netherlands-based Mylan has offered $75 in cash and 2.3 of its shares for each Perrigo share, a combination now worth $188.55 based on Mylan’s Thursday closing price of $49.37. Perrigo shares closed down $1.31 at $181.08 on Thursday.

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Joe Papa, Perrigo's chief executive, said he does not believe his company's shareholders will agree to swap their shares for Mylan shares, and that the deal premium of 13 per cent was lower than in other pharmaceutical takeovers.

Perrigo shareholders have until November 13th to take part in the tender offer. Shareholders often wait until near the closing date before deciding to participate, so it is unclear if Mylan will succeed.

Buying Perrigo would give Mylan over-the-counter consumer and nutritional products and a line of generic topical medicines.

A takeover would be the latest in a string of recent multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical deals, including Valeant Pharmaceuticals’s $11 billion acquisition of Salix Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie’s $21 billion offer for Pharmacyclics.

Reuters