Novartis To Buy Medicines Co. In $9.7 Bln Deal

(RTTNews) - Swiss drug major Novartis AG (NVS) agreed to buy the Medicines Co. (MDCO) for $85.00 per share in cash, valuing the US-based biopharmaceutical company at about $9.7 billion.

The offer price represents a premium of about 24% premium over the Medicines Company's closing share price of $68.55 on November 22, 2019 which represented a fully diluted equity value of about $7.7 billion when including the impact of outstanding stock options.

Novartis expects to close the deal in the first quarter of 2020. It plans to finance the transaction through available cash and short- and long-term borrowings.

Novartis expects the transaction to be significantly accretive to Group core operating income and core earnings per share in the medium term.

Novartis said it expects to continue to expand IM Division core margins to reach mid-thirties in the near term, and mid to high-thirties in the medium term, while investing in launches, including inclisiran.