Takeda founding family member declares opposition to Shire deal, cites high financial risk, limited merit (translated)
03 DEC 2018
Takeda Pharmaceutical [TYO:4502] founding family member and former international sales manager Kazuhisa Takeda announced on 3 December his opposition to the proposed acquisition of Ireland-based Shire [LON:SHP], Jiji.com reported.
The Japanese-language report cited Takeda as saying during the 3 December press briefing in Tokyo that the deal presents too much financial risk and that there is limited merit, indicating his opposition to the planned transaction. He added that he agrees with the analysis of former Takeda Chairman Kunio Takeda, who last month declared his opposition to the deal.
Takeda is scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on 5 December, where shareholders will vote on the planned acquisition of Shire, the report said. Takeda will need approval from more than a two-third majority of shareholders for the deal to go forward, the report added.
Although the position of Kazuhisa Takeda and others in opposition to the deal hasn’t gained the understanding of all the members of the founding family and is likely to account for only a certain percentage of the total number of shareholder votes, his declaration could boost the spread of opposition votes, the report said.
Meanwhile, a related report from NHK also cited Kazuhisa Takeda as saying at the press conference that the total amount of loans taken out to finance the deal is too large and the financial risk is too high, expressing his opposition to the deal.
Takeda will spend about JPY 6.8trn (USD 60bn) to acquire Shire, the NHK report said.