Brookfield drops US$6.8-billion offer to buy drugmaker Grifols
financialpost.comBrookfield Asset Management Ltd. walked away from a plan to acquire Grifols SA, ending months of negotiations to take over the Spanish blood-plasma company.
The New York-based money manager said Wednesday it decided to not pursue the deal, confirming a Bloomberg report, after the Grifols board rejected its indicative offer that valued the company at €6.45 billion (US$6.8 billion). Brookfield said in a regulatory filing that its decision also comes “after extensive due diligence.”
Brookfield, whose talks were disclosed publicly in July, was looking to take the company private in partnership with the Grifols family, which owns about a third of the maker of medicines for diseases such as hepatitis and hemophilia. The Spanish company’s founding family said it won’t support any new bid to take its eponymous drug-maker private.
“The family will not back another take private transaction,” a spokesperson for the Grifols clan said by phone, noting that it had received letters from existing shareholders saying the company was being undervalued. “We will continue working so that the company’s value increases even more.”
Grifols shares fell as much as 14 per cent after the news was published by Bloomberg, the biggest intra-day decline since Feb. 29. They traded eight per cent lower at 3 p.m. in Madrid. Its bonds due in October 2028 recorded the steepest daily drop since January in early morning trading to around 89 cents.
Grifols has faced a rough year since New York-based short seller Gotham City Research LLC issued a report in early January questioning its governance and accounting. The company has lost over a third of its market value since then, as the allegations and management mishaps eroded investor confidence.
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