4th Sep 2014 14:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC hired Wall Street advisers with close ties to the Obama administration in their efforts to fend off a takeover offer from Pfizer Inc earlier in the year, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The UK drugs giant hired Thomas Nides of Morgan Stanley and Roger Altman of Evercore Partners, both of whom made calls in May telling senior administration officials they should clamp down on tax inversions, the report said citing people familiar with the calls.
Tax inversions, whereby a company acquires another in order to re-domicile and lower its corporate tax rate, have increasingly come into focus for US lawmakers, as many large US firms are seeking to avoid relatively higher US corporate tax rates.
In June, Medtronic Inc agreed to buy Ireland based Covidien PLC, and in July AstraZeneca peer Shire PLC accepted a GBP32 billion offer from Abbvie Inc. These deals are not confined to the healthcare industry, however, as Burger King Worldwide Inc last week proposed a deal for Canada's Tim Hortons Inc.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/astrazeneca-targeted-washington-to-fend-off-pfizer-1409778452
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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