Philip Morris drops bid for inhaler maker; Deliveroo shares surge as rival takes stake – business live

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battle for takeover vector, the UK inhaler company, has grown into a middle of a private equity company and a cigarette maker. Philip Morris The company has extended its offer.

PMI, owner of Marlboro cigarettes, has just dropped its bid for Vectura £1bn, just a few days after its last bid Carlyle, American private equity group.

Carlyle’s bid was accepted by Vectura’s board … after criticism from medical experts concerned about the prospect of a major tobacco company owning a firm that used drugs and drugs to help with breathing problems. Manufactures equipment.

PMI insists it is committed to the long-term transformation of its business to go ‘beyond nicotine’, rather than focusing on “short-term profits and efficiency” (a pop on the highly criticized private equity model).

It plans to run Vectura as an autonomous business unit that will form the backbone of PMI’s inhaled therapeutics business:

PMI intends to increase the overall level of spending on research and development, which it believes will further benefit Vectura’s development expertise for the delivery of differentiated technologies and complex inhaled therapeutics.

PMI believes that its significant expertise in scientific research, regulatory science, manufacturing, supply chain and commercialization globally (with operations in more than 180 markets) complements the development of Vectura and its capabilities in complex inhaled therapeutics. Secure and enhance.

Philip Morris’ bid is worth 165p per share, beating out an offer of 155p per share from Carlyle (about £958m), which Vectura accepted on Friday afternoon (losing its support for an earlier offer from PMI).

But doctors, health organizations and politicians have raised the alarm recently about PMI owning a company whose drugs treat smoking-related illnesses.

as we wrote on friday:

Vectura was criticized by anti-smoking campaigners and politicians for proposing to sell a tobacco company. The CEOs of Cancer Research UK, Asthma UK, the British Lung Foundation and Action on Smoking and Health wrote to the Business Secretary, Quasi Quarteng, and the Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, calling on the government to halt the deal.

The charity said there was a “real possibility” that PMI would use Vectura to “legalize tobacco industry participation in the health debate within the UK”.

acquisition of Morrison The takeover panel announced this morning that private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice has been given until August 20 to bid for the supermarket chain or walk away.

They were facing the 5 pm deadline today, before that Rival bidder Fort withdrew its bid on Friday.

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