Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (SOBI) said on Thursday it had received a bid from U.S. private equity firm Advent International and Aurora Investment valuing the rare disease drugmaker at about $8bn.
SOBI’s stock, already up 15% so far this year, rose 24.6% to 239 crowns after news of the 235 Swedish crowns per share offer, which SOBI said represented a premium of about 34.5% to its Aug. 25 closing price of 174.70 crowns on Nasdaq Stockholm.
Investor AB and Fjärde AP-Fonden, with SOBI stakes of about 36.45% and 6.96% respectively, have separately agreed to accept the offer, SOBI said, adding that its board had unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer from Advent and Aurora, an affiliate of capital markets group GIC.
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SOBI, which sells drugs within haemophilia, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases and cancer supportive care, added that Danske Bank had said the offer was “fair to SOBI’s shareholders from a financial point of view”.
“The board believes that the terms of the offer recognise SOBI’s long-term growth prospects, as well as the risks associated with those prospects, and provide certainty, in cash, to shareholders,” SOBI said in a statement.
SOBI shares rose as much as 22% on Aug. 26, after Bloomberg reported that Advent was considering a bid.
During the pandemic, SOBI, which employs around 1,500 people worldwide and had revenues of 15.3 billion Swedish crowns in 2020, has suffered from weakened demand for its drugs as healthcare has focused on COVID-19.
Europe’s medicines regulator is evaluating SOBI’s arthritis drug Kineret, with the active substance anakinra, for the treatment of COVID-19 in adults with pneumonia who are at risk of severe respiratory failure.
Source: Reuters
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