UPDATE 1-Nycomed to buy Bradley Pharma for $346 mln

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Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:10am EDT

(Adds details, quotes, share price)

COPENHAGEN Oct 30 (Reuters) - Privately-owned Danish drug maker Nycomed said on Tuesday it would buy Bradley Pharmaceuticals Inc. BDY.N for $20 per share, or $346 million, and delist it.

The offer price represents a 25 percent premium to the specialty pharmaceutical company's closing price of $16.00 on Monday.

It is less than the $360 million bid to take it private offered in May by an investor group led by Bradley Chief Executive Daniel Glassman.

Bradley said that a special committee of independent directors it had set up to evaluate the company's strategic alternatives recommended the Nycomed deal and urged shareholders to approve it.

Glassman did not participate in the board's consideration and approval of the merger. He did not immediately make a statement on the deal.

The transaction needs the approval of holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Bradley's common and Class B stock, voting together as one class.

Glassman, a company founder, owns most of Bradley's Class B shares and together with relatives controls about 22 percent of the voting power, according to analysts.

Bradley said it expected the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2008. Its shares rose 3.6 percent to $19.58 by 1504 GMT.

"The acquisition of Bradley provides us with a unique opportunity to strengthen our dermatology expertise in the U.S. with successful products and capabilities that match ours perfectly," said Hakan Bjorklund, chief executive of Nycomed. "The acquisition enables us to gain critical mass in the dermatology market and provides significant momentum for further add-on investments."

Nycomed bought the drug arm of German chemicals group Altana ALTG.DE last year for around $6 billion. The company's best selling drug is the gastric acid inhibitor Pantoprazol, with almost 50 percent of group sales.

Nycomed is moving its group headquarters from Denmark to Switzerland.

((Reporting by Gelu Sulugiuc, Editing by David Cowell; Copenhagen newsroom +45 33 96 96 50, gelu.sulugiuc@reuters.com)) Keywords: BRADLEY TAKEOVER/

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