August 3 (SeeNews) - Dechra Pharmaceuticals said on Monday it has signed a conditional share purchase agreement to acquire a 63.3% stake in Croatian drug maker Genera [ZSE:VERN-R-A] in a bid to enter the vaccine market and expand its food producing animal product portfolio.
Dechra is offering to pay 23.66 euro ($25.95) per Genera share, equivalent to 51.4 million euro for the entire share capital on a cash free debt free basis. The price represents a 42.5% premium to Genera's closing price of 126 kuna ($18.19/16.6 euro) on the Zagreb bourse on Friday and a 81.6% premium based on the average price for the last three months, Dechra said in a statement.
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The takeover will be funded by Dechra's existing debt facility.
The agreement is conditional on total aggregate shareholder acceptances reaching 75% of the voting share capital.
Dechra, an international specialist veterinary pharmaceuticals and related products business, expects the transaction to be earnings neutral during the first two years after acquisition.
The company said it expects to launch a mandatory takeover bid for Genera in September and to wrap it up by November.
Genera is the oldest and largest manufacturer of animal health products in Croatia with a strong market share in its local market and neighbouring countries. It operates three main divisions: animal health, which represents the majority of revenue, agrochemicals and human pharmaceuticals. Over the last few years, vaccines have become a key part of Genera's animal health division with the company investing significantly in building its poultry vaccines capabilities, including regulatory submissions in the EU and elsewhere.
Dechra said Genera is in the process of obtaining registration in Europe for the most commonly used vaccines in broilers, which would support and improve its animal product portfolio sales in Western Europe.
The Croatian company posted a consolidated net profit of 1.5 million kuna on total revenues of 219 million kuna in 2014.
Genera was trading up 35.71% at 171 kuna by 1419 CET on the Zagreb Stock Exchange on Monday.
(1 euro=7.5893 Croatian kuna)