US DRUG COMPANY BUYS EIRGEN FOR $135m - Waterford-based pharmaceutical company EirGen has been acquired by US drugs company Opko for $135 million.
Founded by Tom Brennan and Patsy Carney 10 years ago, the company employs 100 people and manufactures high potency drugs for cancer chemotherapy, writes the Irish Times. Opko - which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and based in Miami - is paying $100 million in cash and €35 million in shares for the business. “We wanted to build to the next level and the focus had to be in the US. We made a relatively soft approach to the market in February to gauge interest,” EirGen’s chief executive Mr Carney explained yesterday. The deal with Opko closed yesterday and was facilitated by the fact that both Mr Carney and Mr Brennan, who is chief technology officer, were familiar with the executive team behind the US company led by Philip Frost, he added. Mr Frost sold Key Pharmaceuticals to Schering-Plough in 1986 for €600 million before establishing Ivax which was sold to Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2006 for $7.5 billion. He is chairman of Teva and established Opko in 2007 by merging three smaller drugs companies. It is currently valued at $6.3 billion. Mr Carney and Mr Brennan worked for Ivax - which has a plant in Waterford - for 14 and 10 years respectively before establishing EirGen when they spotted an opportunity to manufacture generic chemotherapy drugs.
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HP SAYS IT OVERPAID BY $5 BILLION FOR AUTONOMY - Hewlett-Packard overpaid for Autonomy by at least $5 billion after its founder Mike Lynch led a “systematic” effort to “artificially inflate” his company’s revenues, according to a legal filing in which the US technology conglomerate set out its full case against the British entrepreneur for the first time. HP is suing Mr Lynch and Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, alleging fraud while seeking damages of $5.1 billion in one of the largest civil cases brought in the UK against British nationals, writes the Financial Times. Both Mr Lynch and Mr Hussain deny the claims. In 2012, HP said it would take an $8.8 billion writedown of its disastrous $11.1 billion acquisition of Autonomy, $5.5 billion of which was due to alleged “accounting misrepresentations”. In a claim filed at the High Court in London, HP alleged that the men led efforts over two-and-a-half years to engage in “improper transactions and accounting practices”. The company did not say this activity would have dissuaded it from buying Autonomy, but said it had an inaccurate picture of UK software group’s financial health when weighing up the acquisition.
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AER LINGUS DECISION NOT EXPECTED FOR 'SOME TIME' - A decision on the proposed sale of the State’s 25.1% stake in Aer Lingus is not expected for “some time”, according to Tánaiste Joan Burton. Ms Burton said no decision has been made by the Government as to whether it will accept a bid from Willie Walsh’s International Airlines Group (IAG) for its shareholding. The Labour leader - whose party is believed to be split on whether to support the deal - said work is ongoing on a report being compiled by a Government-appointed review group, says the Irish Examiner. Ms Burton claimed she is not aware of the study being finalised despite media reports that a decision is due as early as this week. “There is a whole series of discussions which are ongoing, but there has been no decision reached and I don’t anticipate that there will be for some time,” Ms Burton said. “I am not aware that their report is complete. There are a number of extremely serious factors in relation to our livelihood as a country in terms of connections,” she added. Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe has already rejected IAG’s advances and sought greater guarantees over the use of Heathrow’s valuable landing slots on routes to Irish airports including Cork and Shannon.
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PROFITS AT IRISH CAR FIRM SPEED AHEAD TO €1.7m - Pre-tax profits at one of the largest motor dealerships in the west of Ireland rose by 14% to €1.7m last year. Al Hayes Motors, based in Co Galway, is a main dealer for Volkswagen and Mitsubishi. The Portumna firm's rose to €33.46m in the year to the end of October last. The firm benefited from Volkswagen having the second largest market share of the Irish new car market last year with almost 12% of all new cars sold, says the Irish Independent. VW was marginally behind Toyota and ahead of Ford. Last year, the number of Volkswagen cars sold jumped by 23% to 11,760 while sales of Mitsubishi rose 23% to 594. National sales of Volkswagen in the first four months of this year have increased 69% on the same period last year. According to the directors' report, for Al Hayes "despite the current economic climate and the decrease in turnover, the company has maintained profitability in line with expectations and we are confident of maintaining those levels for 2015". At the end of October last, the firm had accumulated profits of €14.8m and employed 43.
