If you've been thinking that it's a seller's market out there for biotech companies, Bloomberg has some numbers to support the case.
Buyers have been forking over a 71% premium for companies valued at more than $500 million, says the business news service. And that's the highest level the analysts have seen since 2000. Applying that formula to Human Genome Sciences ($HGSI), which warranted a 68% premium in GSK's ($GSK) bid, the dealmakers in the crowd are looking for a bump in the offer.
"It's a good time to be a seller if you're a biotech company," Greenwood Capital's Walter Todd tells Bloomberg. "These bigger pharma companies are trying to fill in the gaps in their portfolios. Human Genome has come out and said it undervalues the company, so the assumption is that Glaxo is going to have to raise the offer or somebody else could step in."
What's driving the higher premiums? It's a simple case of Big Pharma scrambling to line up promising new drugs. That's a good place for biotech to be in, especially considering the poor IPO market that has plagued the industry for three years,
- here's the story from Bloomberg