A week ago, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) CFO Dan Suesskind said after losing the bid to acquire Merck KGaA's (XETRA: MRK) generics division "We didn’t want to buy at yesterday’s price what will cost a lot less tomorrow." Last Friday, it was the turn Robert J. Coury, CEO at Teva's US rival Mylan Laboratories Inc. (NYSE: MYL), which acquired the division for $6.7 billion, to comment on the outcome of the recent contest.
Coury said, "The entire sector is down today. I'm very pleased with what I see in our security. We've received extremely strong support from our very large shareholders."
Two weeks ago, when Mylan announced the acquisition of the Merck's division, investors sent the stock down 12%, amid fears that the deal could affect the payment of dividends and that it would not contribute to the company's profitability for several years. Investors also had doubts as to Mylan's ability to complete the integration of the division, which is double its size.
Coury also stressed that he was not worried by the prospect that a major investor could scupper the deal, as financier Carl Icahn did when he blocked the company's acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE: KG) two years ago. "I haven't blinked yet, and I don't expect to blink as long as I'm captain of the ship," he said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 27, 2007
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