Perrigo Company plc Surges Amid Report Of Omega Pharma Acqusition

Shares of Perrigo Company plc PRGO surged higher Thursday amid reports that the company will buy Omega Pharma NV.

Bloomberg reported that “Perrigo Co. has entered exclusive talks to buy Omega Pharma NV after beating suitors including Sanofi, Actavis Plc and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH,” according to sources with knowledge of the developments.

Omega Pharma may sell for more than 4 billion euros ($5 billion) according to the report.

Bloomberg reported that representatives for Perrigo, Omega Pharma and Sanofi declined to comment while representatives for Actavis and Boehringer Ingelheim did not immediately respond.

According to the Perrigo website, the company originated in 1887 with “Luther Perrigo, the proprietor of a general store and apple-drying business, [who] had the idea to package and distribute patented medicines and household items for country stores."

In July 2013, Perrigo bought Irish drug company Elan Corp. for $8.6 billion. The deal allowed Perrigo to move its address from Allegan, Michigan to Ireland, where the corporate income-tax rate is lower, according to the report.

Bloomberg noted that “Omega Pharma...was valued at 848 million euros when it was taken private by founder and Chief Executive Officer Marc Coucke with Waterland Private Equity Investments BV and several co-investors in February 2012, after 13 years as a public company.”

The report stated that he company’s operating profit for the first six months of 2014 was 130.1 million euros, an increase of 60 percent from the same period last year with operating profit for the whole of 2013 was 137.7 million euros, with net sales of 1.2 billion euros.

Perrigo Company plc recently traded at $158.35, up 2.16 percent.