$6.1bn M&A deal sees LabCorp buy Covance

BY Richard Summerfield

A $6.1bn M&A deal which has seen Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) agree to buy Covance Inc  will result in a major new company providing services to physicians, pharmaceutical companies and patients.

The deal will see LabCorp’s current chief executive officer, David King, lead the newly combined company, while Covance’s chairman and chief executive , Joe Herring, will continue to operate Covance as a division of LabCorp.

LabCorp and Covance are headquartered in North Carolina and Princeton respectively.

“As a combined company, we will be well positioned to respond to and benefit from the fundamental forces of change in our business, including payment for outcomes, pharmaceutical outsourcing, global trial support, trends in pharmaceutical R&D spending, personalised medicine, and big data and informatics,” said Mr King.

Mr King believes that the acquisition of Covance will result in cost reductions of around $100m annually within three years of closure, positioning LabCorp as the world’s leading healthcare diagnostics company.

Covance’s Joe Herring is equally sure as to the solidity of the deal. He said “Covance generates more safety and efficacy data for the approval of innovative medicines than any other company in the world, and LabCorp has longitudinal diagnostic data from more than 75 million patients.

“This combination leads the way to more cost-effective healthcare by improving the safety and efficacy of drug therapies, enabling accurate patient diagnostics, and advancing evidence-based medicines which will enable our clients to substantiate the value of their products and services to patients and payors.”

The deal, however, has attracted criticism from some analysts with the apparent incompatibility of the two firm’s businesses being a bone of contention: LabCorp’s core business entails the processing of patient samples for doctors and hospitals while Covance assists drug manufacturers with the running of clinical trials for their new products.

Although still subject to various approvals, the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

Perrigo to acquire Omega in $4.5bn M&A deal

BY Fraser Tennant

A major new pharmaceutical M&A deal will see Perrigo acquire Belgian firm Omega Pharma for $4.5bn – a deal which will transform the US consumer healthcare company into a top five global OTC company.

The deal between Perrigo, a leading global provider of quality affordable healthcare products, and Omega Pharma, one of the largest OTC healthcare companies in Europe, is being funded through a combination of cash, debt and equity. It is expected to significantly expand Perrigo’s international presence and provide the Dublin-based manufacturer with a much larger slice of the European over-the-counter healthcare sector.

No stranger to M&A, Perrigo bought the biotechnology company Elan in July 2013 for $8.6bn.

"The combination of these two great companies accelerates Perrigo's international growth strategy, substantially diversifies our business streams and establishes a durable leadership position in the European OTC marketplace," said Perrigo chairman, president and chief executive, Joseph C. Papa.

The Perrigo boss is confident that the deal will: (i) accelerate Perrigo's strategy to expand internationally; (ii) combine Perrigo's supply chain and operational excellence with Omega's OTC branding and regulatory expertise; (iii) create multiple opportunities to cross-sell Perrigo products in diverse new channels; (iv) position Perrigo to capture additional share of the $30bn European OTC market; (v) add approximately 2500 employees, including a large sales team of approximately 1100 individuals; and (vi) provide leadership position in a durable, European OTC cash pay market.

Mr Papa continued "Our strong financial performance and operational structure have enabled the continued growth and globalisation of our business model with Ireland as our gateway for this expansion. Together, our combined company will have an even larger product portfolio, broader geographic reach, and enhanced scale.”

“This is an exciting time in the history of our company,” added Omega Pharma founder and chief executive Marc Coucke. “My continued ownership investment demonstrates my confidence in the potential for the combined company. Together, we will have a substantially broader product portfolio with established global platforms and commercial channels to better serve our customers and patients."

The Perrigo/Omega Pharma deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

Oil & gas M&A market awash with ‘cautious optimism’

BY Fraser Tennant

The oil and gas M&A market is awash with ‘cautious optimism’ according to EY’s new Capital Confidence Barometer. 

The Barometer, EY’s 11th, paints a picture of an increasingly stable global economy which, although still recovering and relatively modest in scale, will lead to an increase in oil & gas M&A activity.

“The issues surrounding the oil & gas M&A landscape are primarily uncertainty and volatility,” said Andy Brogan, global oil & gas transaction Leader at EY. “While the broader economy is increasingly seen as stable, growth is anemic, and has notably slowed oil demand growth.

EY’s survey found that the number of oil & gas executives who believe that the global economy is more secure has doubled in the last 12 months. Executives are now positioning themselves to respond to a market which, although still sluggish, is once again beginning to stir.

“This means more oil & gas assets on the market now than in many past years, but in the buyer’s market, deals are taking longer to close,” believes Mr Brogan. “But as oil prices adjust to a slower global economy, we do see some cautious optimism for deal-making, which is supported by the resilience the market has historically shown.”

Key findings in the Capital Confidence Barometer include:  (i) 94 percent (of oil & gas executives) expect the global economy to improve or at least be stable over the next 12 months; (ii) 53 percent are expecting the oil and gas deal market to improve over the next 12 months; (iii) 68 percent expect that their deal pipeline will increase over the next 12 months, almost double compared to expectations six months ago; and (iv) 53 percent see increased geopolitical instability as the greatest economic risk over the next 12 months, up sharply from six months ago.

Sluggish and uncertain the market may be, but for many oil & gas companies, dealmaking prospects are firmly on an upward trajectory.

Report: Cautious optimism to fuel M&A rebound

Shanghai-Hong Kong stock exchange link-up heralds new era of international trade

BY Fraser Tennant

Hailed as ‘historic’ and ‘a landmark’, the link-up between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges has well and truly opened the floodgates, with billions of dollars set to flow in and out of mainland China – the world’s second-largest economy.

Officially known as the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect, the new trading platform is expecting to see US$3.8bn a day being generated in cross-border transactions. Many hedge funds, banks, brokerage firms and big institutional investors are waiting in the wings to get their piece of the action.

These international investors purchased 13bn yuan (US$2.1bn) of Shanghai shares on the opening day of the link-up (maxing out the daily limit), while mainland investors got through 1.4bn yuan of the 10.5bn yuan quota in Hong Kong.

While the Hong Kong-Shanghai link is a major step in opening up China’s financial markets, which until now had largely been closed to foreign investment, major trade restrictions, such as the daily US$2.1bn limit on buying stocks, remain.

"It's really the beginning of a new era," said Charles Li, Hong Kong Exchanges chief executive.  “The link is a massive bridge, a massive road. It is going to be here not for days, not for weeks, not even for months, it is going to be here for years and decades."

Others are more circumspect.

Investor Wang Chenyu said “The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect offers a limited scope of shares for trading and it has investment quotas. It does not have any special advantages."

Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi, added “Mainland investors will have to get used to the trading system. Right now it's the wait and see attitude.”

Although early trading on the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect has gone smoothly, demand has dropped somewhat since the opening day extravaganza. Thus far, Chinese investors have shown little interest in Hong Kong-listed stocks, while international investment into China has slowed markedly since first day trading.

Whether this proves to be the norm, a sign that the link-up has been overhyped, is too early to say.

News: China Stock Link Goes From Through-Train to Ghost Train as Flows Slump

Asia Pacific investment: PwC presents executives’ 10 year perspective on growth

BY Fraser Tennant

Senior business executives’ views on the opportunities for growth and business investment in the Asia Pacific region over the next 10 years form the basis of PwC’s 2014 APEC CEO Survey.

The Survey – ‘New vision for Asia Pacific: Connectivity creating new platforms for growth’ – shows that business leaders believe that a more connected, more balanced APEC region is the way forward.   

The 600 senior executives surveyed as to their perspectives on investment, trade and connectivity, were unanimous on what they believed the region had to do to drive investment over the next decade – 'be bold and break down barriers to growth'.

The Survey also reveals that the senior executives see the momentum swinging toward free trade across the APEC region and goes on to speculate as to where businesses are likely to be building their platforms for growth.

Key findings in the report include: (i) investments are set to rise across the region; (ii) confidence in revenue growth continues to improve; (iii) process barriers to trade can be as material as tariffs; (iv) executives aspire to do more with business partnerships; and (v) confidence lags on returns from social network investments.

Dennis Nally, PwC’s global chairman, said “As more of the world’s economic activity shifts to the APEC region, confidence and revenue growth continues to improve. Our survey revealed that 46 percent of executives are very confident as to near-term revenue growth over the next 12 months.

“Businesses are acting on opportunities across the APEC region and a majority of CEOs plan to increase investment over the next year. Supporting much of this confidence is a vision of a more connected Asia Pacific region.

“As the world becomes more inter-connected, there is no choice for businesses to not only adapt, but to innovate.”

While the survey makes clear that many barriers to business growth in the Asia Pacific region have receded, others remain firmly in place. What business leaders say they are looking for is greater clarity and transparency around regulations and other 'soft barriers'.

Whether they get their wish remains to be seen.

Report: New vision for Asia Pacific: Connectivity creating new platforms for growth