Roche-Spark’s US$ 4.3 billion merger deadline now pushed to April 2020

By PharmaCompass

2019-07-11

Impressions: 78 Article

In February this year, Roche and Spark Therapeutics had announced a definitive merger agreement wherein the former was to fully acquire the latter for a total transaction value of approximately US$ 4.3 billion.

The road to the merger of the two companies has been a rocky one with various delays pushing the agreement back four times.

According to a regulatory filing, the Swiss drugmaker has now moved its deadline for closing the Spark deal from January 31, 2020 to April 30, 2020. This is a precautionary move, meant to give the deal partners time to clear any hurdles that may come up as US and UK antitrust regulators review the companies’ marriage.

Roche has said it remains “fully committed” to the deal and sees it closing this year. The change provides “additional time to clear the transaction”.

The delay in the merger has happened due to the time-consuming US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) scrutiny into competition issues. Moreover, three US lawsuits challenging the deal are pending, alleging disclosure violations associated with the offer.

“Although closing this deal is taking longer than I had hoped, my excitement about our anticipated partnership has only increased,” Roche chief executive Severin Schwan had written in a note to Spark employees.

In a note to Spark investors, Roche CEO Severin Schwan said the plan was still to close the merger in 2019 despite the new deadline.

“While we still expect this transaction to close in 2019, we want to ensure that we proactively identify and remove any potential future obstacles to achieving this outcome,” he said. “Good things almost always take time, so as we work to bring this agreement to a close, I ask for your continued patience.”

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