[ad_1]
Hello and welcome to our continued coverage of the global economy, financial markets, euro area and business.
The battle for the redemption of Vector, the UK inhaler company, between a private equity firm and a cigarette maker has stepped up after Philip morris increased its offer for the company.
PMI, owner of Marlboro cigarettes, raised its offer on Vectura to just over 1 billion pounds, just days after his previous offer was beaten by Carlyle, the American private equity group.
Carlyle’s offer had been accepted by Vectura’s board of directors … following criticism from alarmed medical experts at the prospect of a large tobacco company owning a company that makes drugs and devices to help solve respiratory problems.
PMI insists it has embarked on a long-term business transformation to go “beyond nicotine”, rather than focusing on “short-term gains and effectiveness” ( a pop with the much-criticized private equity model).
His plan to manage Vectura as a stand-alone business unit that will form the backbone of PMI’s inhalation therapy business:
PMI intends to increase the total level of research and development spending which it believes will further benefit Vectura’s differentiated technologies and development expertise for the delivery of complex inhaled therapies ….
PMI believes that its significant expertise in scientific research, regulatory science, manufacturing, supply chain and global marketing (with operations in more than 180 markets) will preserve and enhance the development of Vectura and its abilities in complex inhaled therapies.
Philip Morris’ offer is worth 165p per share, beating Carlyle’s 155p per share (worth around £ 958million), which Vectura accepted on Friday afternoon (dropping support for a previous offer from PMI).
Guardian News
(@guardiannews)Carlyle increases bid for inhaler company Vectura, beating tobacco giant Philip Morris https://t.co/c76STXQaQe
But doctors, health charities and politicians have all recently sounded the alarm that PMI owns a company whose drugs treat smoking-related illnesses.
As we wrote on Friday:
Anti-tobacco activists and politicians criticized Vectura for offering to sell to a tobacco company. The CEOs of Cancer Research UK, Asthma UK, the British Lung Foundation and Action on Smoking and Health wrote to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and Health Secretary Sajid Javid calling on the government to block the ‘OK.
Charities said there was a “real prospect” that PMI is using Vectura to “legitimize the tobacco industry’s involvement in health debates in the UK”
The resumption of Morrisons is also scolding, with the Takeover Panel announcing this morning that private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has until August 20 to bid for the supermarket chain, or to pull out.
They faced a 5 p.m. deadline today, before competitor Fortress lifted its bid on Friday.
entrust to TMF
(@confierTMF)The takeover panel extended the deadline for #MRW / $ MRW bid:-
the executive has decided that … the CD&R must now, by 5:00 p.m. on August 20, 2021, either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Morrisons under Rule 2.7 of the Code or announce that it has not intending to make an offer …
Agenda
- 3 p.m .: US Jolts job vacancy survey
- 4 p.m .: US consumer inflation expectations for July
[ad_2]
Source link
