Asahi Kasei Unveils Deal to Buy Veloxis for $1.3 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Asahi Kasei Corp. is buying Denmark’s Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S for 143.2 billion yen ($1.3 billion), the companies said, in the latest of a series of deals by Japanese drugmakers.

Asahi Kasei is offering to buy the ordinary shares and warrants of Veloxis for 6 kroner per share in a tender starting next month, they said in a statement Monday. That’s a discount to the 6.6 kroner closing price on Friday, before the news was announced. In Monday’s early trading, the stock fell by about 9% to the offer price of 6 kroner.

Veloxis shares have almost doubled in value after the drugmaker raised its profit forecast at the end of October. The company, known for its extended-release formulation of tacrolimus, used to prevent organ rejection in kidney transplant patients, was founded in 2002 as a spinoff of Lundbeck A/S.

Lundbeckfond Invest A/S, Novo Holdings A/S, the directors and management of Veloxis, which collectively own about 81.2%, have signed irrevocable agreements to tender their shares for 4.45 kroner apiece, per share for their shares and warrants.

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Asahi Kasei’s acquisition is the latest for Japan’s pharmaceutical companies, which have seen a wave of deals over the past year. Last week, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. offered to buy out its drugmaking unit Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. in a $4.5 billion deal. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. this year closed its $62 billion takeover of Shire Plc as the Japanese company seeks to transform itself into a global drugmaker.

--With assistance from Christian Wienberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Reed Stevenson in Tokyo at rstevenson15@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma O'Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net, Eric Pfanner

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