Mylan To Acquire Non-U.S. Business From Abbott For $5.3 Billion

Samantha SharfForbes Staff

Shares of generic drug maker Mylan MYL +2.13% were up around 2.5% Monday morning to about $51.40 a piece. The pop comes after the company announced it will acquire a portfolio of non-U.S. developed market drugs from Abbott Laboratories ABT +1.26%. For its part Abbott shares were up slightly less than a percent to around $41.65 Monday morning.

The deal will be all-stock and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. In exchange for 105 million shares of the combined company — an approximately 21% stake for Abbott — Mylan will receive 100 specialty and branded generic pharmaceutical products, expanding Mylan’s reach in five therapeutic areas, as well as its presence in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The deal is worth about $5.3 billion based on Mylan’s $50.20 closing price Friday.

Mylan anticipates the deal will add $1.9 billion in annual revenue as of the close, bringing the company’s 2014 sales to $10 billion. ”We have been actively looking at a wide range of opportunities, and the acquisition of this business is absolutely the right next strategic transaction for Mylan,” said Mylan Executive Chairman Robert Coury in a statement on the deal. “It builds on our strong momentum, expands and further diversifies our business in our largest markets outside of the U.S., and clearly positions Mylan for the next phase of growth through enhanced financial flexibility and a more competitive global tax structure.”

In recent months a number of large American companies have made headlines for trying to use M&A deals with foreign competition to take advantage of lower international tax rates. This deal, for example, is expected to cut Mylan’s tax rate to about 20% to 21% in the first full year and to the high teens in following years.

In a story last week FORBES’ Matthew Herper pointed out that many of the companies considering this tactic, known as a tax inversion, are from the health care sector. As U.S. lawmakers try to come up with solutions, writes Herper, any regulations would have to “apply to Medtronic MDT +0.39%, which is merging withCovidien in part to accomplish a tax inversion. AbbVie ABBV -0.2% is currently trying to purchase Shire , and a tax inversion would be part of that deal, too. Of course, if Pfizer PFE +0.57% were to restart its bid for AstraZeneca, that would be a tax inversion, too.”