Pharma giant Roche Holding AG (RHHBY.PK), Friday revealed the start of its $44.50 per share cash tender offer to acquire all the outstanding shares of Illumina Inc. (ILMN).
The offer and withdrawal rights are scheduled to expire at midnight New York time on February 24, 2012, unless the offer is extended, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche said in a statement.
However, in a separate statement on Friday, California-based Illumina has said it will inform its shareholders within next ten days of its formal position on the $5.7 billion takeover offer from Roche. Illumina also advised its shareholders to take no action on the tender offer until the Board reveals its decision.
On Tuesday, Roche made an hostile offer of $44.50 per share to the shareholders of Illumina, representing an all-cash deal of about $5.7 billion.
Roche took the offer directly to Illumina's shareholders, citing unwillingness of Illumina to engage in substantive discussion in order to reach a negotiated deal, despite multiple efforts made by the Swiss firm.
The proposed deal would strengthen Roche's position in the Life Science market in sequencing and microarrays to address the growing demand for genetic/genomic solutions.
Even so, Roche will have to battle it out to acquire Illumina, as the genetic diagnostics company on Thursday adopted a "poison pill" strategy following the hostile bid, which would activate a rights agreement if any person or group buys 15 percent of stock. Illumina has also postponed its fourth quarter earnings announcement in the light of Roche's offer, and said it will publish the results along with its opinion about the offer.
Nevertheless, the company reaffirmed its fourth quarter and full year 2011 financial guidance, which was disclosed at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference on January 10, 2012. Revenue for the quarter is estimated at about $250 million with pro forma earnings of $0.34 per share.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters currently expect the company to report earnings of $0.29 per share on revenues of $248.31 million for the fourth-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items
The company also backed its expectation to meet or exceed analyst estimates for 2012.
ILMN is currently trading at $52.20, down $0.45 or 0.85% on a volume of 3.04 million shares. RHHBY.PK is currently trading at $43.02, down $0.38 or 0.88%.
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