16th Mar 2016 09:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Respiratory drug development company Skyepharma PLC on Wednesday agreed to an all-share merger with larger London-listed peer Vectura Group PLC as it swung to profit in 2015.
Under the terms of the agreement, Skyepharma shareholders will receive 2.7977 new Vectura shares for every Skyepharma share they hold. Based on Vectura's closing price of 146.60 pence per share on Tuesday, this would value Skyepharma at 410.15p per share, or a total of GBP441.3 million.
Skyepharma shares were up 2.4% to 403.00 pence Wednesday, while Vectura shares were up 1.2% to 148.28p.
A partial cash alternative will be made available, by which Skyepharma shareholders can get up to GBP70.0 million in cash for their holdings rather than Vectura shares.
Vectura Chief Executive James Ward-Lilley will be CEO of the combined group, with Andrew Derodra, Skyepharma's chief financial officer, and Vectura Chief Operating Officer Trevor Phillips also to retain executive directorships. Vectura Chairman Bruno Angelici will chair the enlarged group. Skyepharma Chief Executive Peter Grant will depart.
The pair said the combined company will have a significant presence in the global respiratory medicines market.
The news came as Skyepharma said it swung to a pretax profit of GBP30.5 million in 2015, compared to a GBP9.9 million loss in 2014. The year before had been hit by an exceptional cost related to the group refinancing, but revenue also increased to GBP95.9 million in 2015 from GBP73.8 million, outstripping marginal rises in costs.
Skyepharma said it hit its first sales milestone for Flutiform asthma treatment in the year and said the growth of the product was driving higher royalty and product supply revenue.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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