Tag: Vectura

  • PMI Enters Tender Period with Vectura

    PMI Enters Tender Period with Vectura

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Philip Morris International has published an offer document with U.K.-based Vectura Group in connection with the recommended cash offer to acquire the inhaled therapeutics company. Under the terms of the acquisition, Vectura shareholders would be entitled to receive 165 pence per share, a 60 percent premium to the ex-dividend closing price of 103 pence per Vectura share on May 25, 2021.

    “PMI’s acquisition of Vectura is part of our long-term strategy to transform PMI by investing in scientific excellence and leveraging its capabilities and expertise,” said PMI CEO Jacek Olczak. “Our investment will accelerate the development and delivery of inhaled therapeutics to address many of today’s unmet medical needs. We look forward to working with Vectura’s great people as we embark on the next stage of our transformation.”

    In a press note published on its website, PMI also detailed the ways in which it would support Vectura’s growth. Among other things, the cigarette manufacturer intends to build on the company’s leading scientific capabilities to develop products and services that go beyond nicotine.

  • Vectura Board Supports PMI Offer

    Vectura Board Supports PMI Offer

    Photo: sdecoret

    The board of Vectura will support Philip Morris International’s £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) takeover offer for the inhaled treatments manufacturer after the tobacco company outbid private equity firm Carlyle, reports Reuters.  

    PMI on Sunday sweetened its offer for the asthma drugmaker to 165 pence per share, surpassing Carlyle’s final 155 pence proposal.

    Vectura said it considered the terms of the Philip Morris offer to be fair and reasonable, and its board planned to unanimously recommend the bid to shareholders.

    “The Vectura directors recognize the superior cash price the final PMI offer provides Vectura shareholders,” the board wrote in a statement published on Aug. 12, according to Sky News.

    “The Vectura directors also note that wider stakeholders could benefit from PMI’s significant financial resources and its intentions to increase research and development investment and to operate Vectura as an autonomous business unit that will form the backbone of its inhaled therapeutics business.”

    Previously, the company had noted that being owned by a cigarette maker could present “uncertainties.”

    PMI wants to use Vectura’s expertise with inhalable formulations and device design to produce respiratory therapies. The acquisition is part of the cigarette manufacturer’s ambition to move beyond tobacco and to derive at least $1 billion in sales outside nicotine by 2025.

    The proposed transaction has been heavily criticized by health activists who object to ownership by a company whose primary products are a major contributor to the medical conditions that Vectura aims to treat.  

    After Vectura’s announcement on Thursday, the chief executive of Asthma U.K. and the British Lung Foundation called the move by PMI “unacceptable.”

    “Along with representatives from more than 20 organizations, I wrote to the Vectura board today to urge them to reject the bid. They’ve decided to recommend, so now it’s over to the shareholders,” said Sarah Woolnough.

    PMI needs the acceptances of holders of just over 50 percent of Vectura shares for the deal to go through.

  • No Auction After Carlyle Declares Bid Final

    No Auction After Carlyle Declares Bid Final

    Photo: GDM photo and video

    The takeover battle between Philip Morris International and private equity firm Carlyle Group for the British inhaled treatments maker Vectura will avoid an auction sale after Carlyle declared its £958 million ($1.33 billion) bid final, reports Reuters.

    On July 9, PMI offered £852 million for Vectura as part of the company’s ambition to leverage its expertise in inhalation and aerosolization into adjacent areas.

    The Carlyle Group then raised an earlier offer to £958 million. Carlyle had struck an agreement to buy Vectura in May until PMI emerged with its offer in July.

    In response, PMI raised its offer to £1.02 billion while stressing that Vectura would operate as an autonomous business unit under its umbrella.

    The bidding war prompted Britain’s takeover regulator to intervene, saying that it would enter a rare head-to-head auction here if the bidders did not make final bids by Aug. 10.

    PMI’s bid unleashed a storm of criticism from public health advocates who dislike the idea of a tobacco company investing in the lung health business.

    The Vectura directors on Friday acknowledged reports of uncertainties relating to the possible impact on Vectura stakeholders if the company were owned by PMI.

    Founded in 1997, Vectura makes inhalers and nebulizers, which enable patients to breathe in medication as a mist, either through a mouthpiece or a mask. Its customers have included Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline.

    PMI is counting on Vectura to help achieve its goal of at least $1 billion in sales outside nicotine by 2025. Its $820 million acquisition of Fertin Pharma, a maker of nicotine chewing gum and oral drugs for pain, gives the company expertise in oral deliveries, but it would take Philip Morris longer to develop inhaled therapies without Vectura.

    A deal with either one of the U.S. companies would require shareholder approval.

  • Philip Morris Raises Vectura Bid

    Philip Morris Raises Vectura Bid

    Photo: danielabalan

    Philip Morris International has raised its bid to buy Vectura to more than £1 billion ($1.4 billion) reports the BBC.

    PMI increased its offer to £1.65 per share after U.S. private equity firm Carlyle offered £958 million Friday.

    Vectura previously stated that it was backing Carlyle’s offer and withdrawing its recommendation for PMI’s earlier bid. Vectura argued it could be better positioned under Carlyle’s ownership due to “reported uncertainties relating to the impact on Vectura’s wider stakeholders arising as a result of the possibility of the company being owned by PMI.”

    “The PMI increased offer values the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Vectura at approximately £1.02 billion,” PMI said in a statement. “PMI intends to operate Vectura as an autonomous business unit that will form the backbone of its inhaled therapeutics business.”

    PMI’s bid unleashed a storm of criticism from public health advocates who dislike the idea of a tobacco company investing in the lung health business.

    In July, U.K. Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng asked officials to monitor PMI’s proposed takeover of drugmaker Vectura Group.

  • U.K. to Scrutinize PMI’s Vectura Purchase

    U.K. to Scrutinize PMI’s Vectura Purchase

    Photo: metamorworks

    U.K. Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng has asked officials to monitor Philip Morris International’s proposed takeover of drugmaker Vectura Group, reports The Times.

    PMI agreed on Friday to buy Vectura for £1.05 billion ($1.45 billion), giving the U.S. firm access to the British drugmaker’s respiratory ailment treatments and inhaling device technology.

    The deal sparked outrage from anti-smoking groups, including Cancer Research U.K. and Action on Smoking and Health.

    Kwarteng has asked officials to find out what plans PMI has for FTSE 250-listed Vectura. The British government is reportedly uncomfortable that a cigarette company would seek to profit from conditions such as asthma and lung disease.

    Jon Ashworth, Labour’s health spokesman, and Ed Miliband, the Labour business spokesman, wrote to Kwarteng over the weekend, urging the government, under the Enterprise Act 2002, to intervene “to mitigate the effects of public health emergencies.”

    Vectura is one of the U.K.’s leading respiratory disease companies.

    It has been targeted by Philip Morris as the company tries to diversify its business away from harmful tobacco products.

  • Critics Astonished by PMI Pharma Deal

    Critics Astonished by PMI Pharma Deal

    Photo: Ljupco Smokovski

    Public health groups have reacted with astonishment to PMI’s takeover of Vectura Group, according to The Evening Standard.

    “It’s ironic that a tobacco company wants to invest in the lung health industry when their products are the biggest preventable cause of cancer, including lung cancer,” said Cancer Research U.K. Chief Executive Michelle Mitchell.

    “If PMI really wanted to help, they could stop aggressively promoting and selling their products altogether.”

    Sources told The Evening Standard that the Vectura board had a “fiduciary duty” to recommend the offer to shareholders based purely on its value.

    “PMI claims it holds more than a quarter of the global market for cigarettes, so its drive to become a ‘wellness company’ is a long way from fruition,” said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health.

    “I can’t imagine the scientists working for Vectura, a respectable company making products that treat lung cancer, are going to be at all happy waking up to find they’re going to be working for Big Tobacco.”

    Vectura declined to comment on what its employees might think about working for a tobacco company.

    PMI says it is working on using the technology it has developed for its smoke-free products to help drug companies develop inhalable medicines.

    PMI aims to generate $1 billion of net revenues from “beyond nicotine” products by 2025. Last year, total net revenues were $76 billion.