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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Flagrante Delictu who wrote (16592)	3/6/1998 7:34:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

CNBC and Dow Jones are reporting on merger mania heating up again. Astra CEO Haakan Mogren is quoted in a Swedish newspaper this morning as being interested in a merger. Astra already has an alliance with MRK, but new partners included were ZEN, SGP, and BAYZY. It sounded like talks are well under way. Astra rose 1.9% on the news.

To: Flagrante Delictu who wrote (16592)	3/6/1998 7:40:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's Reuters' report: Astra says does not exclude mergers STOCKHOLM, March 6 (Reuters) - Swedish drug company AstraASTRa.ST said on Friday it was studying a number of industrial projects and mergers were not excluded, even though they were not higher on the agenda than other options. "There are a number of industrial projects that we are looking at," Astra spokesman Staffan Ternby told Reuters. Ternby said there were often discussions about mergers when the heads of the major pharmaceutical companies met. "All the major pharmaceutical firms have frequent contacts with each other," he said. Ternby was asked to comment on two separate press interviews with Astra head Hakan Mogren, in which he said a merger was an option for the company. Mogren cited British Zeneca ZEN.L, U.S. Schering-Plough and Germany's Bayer BAYG.F as possible merger partners. REUTERS Rtr 05:35 03-06-98

To: Flagrante Delictu who wrote (16592)	3/6/1998 7:46:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's more from Reuters: FOCUS-Astra'sMogren cites merger options STOCKHOLM, March 6 (Reuters) - The head of Swedish drugs group Astra said on Friday a merger with another drugs group of a comparable size was a strategic option for his company, which has cash reserves of 25 billion crowns ($3.1 billion). In his strongest comments to date on the issue, chief executive Hakan Mogren raised the possibility of a merger in interviews with both business daily Dagens Industri and daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. In the Dagens Nyheter interview, Mogren said Britain's Zeneca ZEN.L, U.S. Schering-Plough and Germany's Bayer BAYG.F were three international players that could be good partners for Astra. "Previously when we had such a high rate of (organic) growth there was no possibility of a merger," chief executive Hakan Mogren told Dagens Industri. "Now we are growing at a slower pace it is an option." A merger would allow Astra to enter new therapeutic areas, he said. "We are open to entirely new areas but we need to have sufficient competence to judge what we're getting into," he said. He stressed that the company's cash reserves were not great in comparison to Astra's bourse value, which stood at 263 billion crowns on Thursday. Astra is the second-largest company on the Stockholm bourse in terms of market capitalisation. But Dagens Industri said the company had the potential to make far greater acquisitions than cash reserves alone would allow. Astra has an equity/assets ratio of 75 percent and Mogren said it could be lowered to 35-40 percent through borrowing. However, Mogren ruled out making a very large acquisition. "The big acquisitions which have been made show how difficult that is. It is problematic financially." Handing back the money to the shareholders was also not a priority. "That is the last alternative...it is like saying we don't know what to do with the money." He was more positive on the scope for a limited stock buy-back, but this would only account for a small part of the cash reserves. Mogren said it would be difficult to merge with a U.S. company which already makes most of its sales in the U.S. as Astra already has a marketing joint-venture in the U.S. with Merck Inc MRK.N. By implication, therefore, a Japanese or European partner would be more likely, Dagens Industri said. "British Zeneca is a fine company. It would be wrong to say that we have never spoken with them," Mogren said. "U.S. Schering-Plough with its large operations in Europe is as interesting but for other reasons. And there is German Bayer's drugs division but there are also other alternatives," he added. To buy a smaller drugs company could be an option. "The advantage of buying a smaller pharmaceutical firm is that you can steer the development yourself. The big disadvantage is that it brings with it a lot of goodwill and a financial burden," Mogren said. Dagens Industri also suggested other companies were interested in Astra, which it said was relatively cheap. "We are considered to be an attractive partner in the pharmaceuticals industry," Mogren said. Analysts have expressed concern for Astra's future after patents for its top selling anti-ulcer drug, Losec, start to expire over the next few years. Losec accounted for over 45 percent of Astra's sales in 1997. ($ = 8.08 Swedish Crowns) REUTERS Rtr 04:12 03-06-98

To: Flagrante Delictu who wrote (16592)	3/6/1998 7:52:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

Here's ZEN's denial: FOCUS-No approach to billion pound Zeneca (updates with closing share price, analyst comment) By Jonathan Birt LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Britain's third-largest drugs company Zeneca Group Plc, which unveiled 1997 pre-tax profits of 1.081 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) on Thursday, said it had not received any recent take-over approaches. Shares in the group, which have been buoyed in recent months by take-over speculation, dropped up to 105 pence after chief executive Sir David Barnes told Reuters Financial Television the company had received no bid or merger approaches. However, they recovered in late trading to close up five pence at 26.15 pounds as the market focused on the group's strong underlying performance. Headline pre-tax profit rose seven percent to 1.08 billion pounds last year while sales slipped three percent to 5.194 billion pounds. The strong pound sliced 178 million pounds off profits and 522 million pounds from sales. However, Zeneca pointed to underlying profit growth of 24 percent, which easily outshone the performance of larger rivals Glaxo Wellcome Plc GLXO.L and SmithKline Beecham Plc SB.L, as signs of its true health. "That was a very strong performance and speaks to the fundamental strength of the business at the moment," Barnes told Reuters in a telephone interview. Analysts said the results were bang in line with forecasts. However, 1998 profit estimates were shaved by around 100 million pounds to about 1.150 billion to reflect the possible loss of benefits from currency hedging, plus 49 million pounds to be spent this year preparing for the Millennium bug and the introduction of the euro. Growth was led by drug sales, which rose 16 percent at constant exchange rates. The launch of a raft of new products last year, including asthma pill Accolate, schizophrenia treatment Seroquel and migraine drug Zomig, which all contributed to the gains. Zeneca said drugs launched in the past two years now accounted for 21 percent of pharmaceutical sales. Longer-established products also showed buoyant growth, with sales of cancer drugs up an underlying 21 percent and heart drug Zestril up by 14 percent. In agrochemicals, the new star fungicide Amistar notched up sales of 63 million pounds. Despite his well-known scepticism about the need for mergers and large-scale take-overs, Barnes told Reuters he was ready to make acquisitions of any scale if the right opportunity arose. "If we can find the right opportunity -- we have a strong ungeared balance sheet -- we will move," he said. But he added that the "essential requirement of any company is to have strong underlying organic growth," and added he was unconvinced by some of the arguments put forward for the recent failed merger between Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. "I don't think it was just about research," he said. "If you look at results from Zeneca, Glaxo and SmithKline Beecham you'll find each of the companies is in a different growth phase." ($ = 0.606 British Pounds) REUTERS Rtr 17:06 03-05-98

To: Flagrante Delictu who wrote (16592)	3/6/1998 8:44:00 AM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 32384

This is what happened to SBH yesterday: SmithKline closes higher as bid talk rumbles LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Shares in SmithKline Beecham Plc SB.L rallied sharply by the close on Thursday, echoing gains in its ADRs in New York as talk continued of a possible hostile bid from Glaxo Wellcome PlcGLXO.L following the failure of their merger plans, dealers and analysts said. SmithKline shares closed 43p or 5.8 percent higher at 780, defying losses elsewhere in the UK equity market. Its ADRsSBH.N were up $2-7/8 at $63-3/8. Glaxo fell 27p or 1.6 percent at 16.22 pounds. Analysts and dealers also noted that SmithKline and Glaxo had been meeting investors this week to discuss their options in the wake of the collapse of their merger last week. "I suspect a bit of bid speculation is coming back," said one analyst. A spokeswoman for SmithKline said the company was not aware of any reason for the advance in its shares, while no-one at Glaxo could immediately be reached for comment. Zeneca Group PlcZEN.L shares also rallied from their earlier losses, sparked by results which proved no better than analyst expected and the company's comments that it had received no bid or merger approach. The stock closed 5p higher at 26.15 pounds -- well above the day's low of 25.05 pounds -- though analysts noted that the advance was exaggerated by a single late trade on the London Stock Exchange's order book. Other trades were recorded at around 25.75 pounds -- down 35p on the day. REUTERS Rtr 12:24 03-05-98