Shire open to AbbVie’s upped offer of £31 billion

AbbVie has now laid on the table a bid of £53.20 a share to acquire UK-headquartered Shire, up from last week’s offer of £51.15.

Shire confirmed this morning that following talks it requested, and received, a revised bid from the US group, comprising £24.44 in cash and 0.8960 shares of new AbbVie per Shire share.

Under the new bid, which is valued at around £31 billion, Shire shareholders would own approximately 25% of the combined new AbbVie.

Green light nears

It is now looking likely that the deal will go ahead, given that Shire said its Board is willing to recommend the offer as long issues surrounding other aspects the deal are resolved.

However, it still stressed that “there can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made”.

A fair offer

Nevertheless, Mick Cooper, analyst at Edison Investment Research, said “it is pleasing to see the two boards working well together and the proposed offer seems a fair price that represents good value for both companies’ shareholders”.

AbbVie chief executive Richard Gonzalez believes marrying the firms “would create a global market leader with unique characteristics and a compelling investment thesis”.