AstraZeneca to sell its holding in Viela Bio By Investing.com

By Samuel Indyk

Investing.com – Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) announced on Monday it is to divest its 26.7% stake in Viela Bio Inc (NASDAQ:VIE) as part of the proposed acquisition of Viela by Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP). Horizon announced the deal for Viela early on Monday, whereby they will acquire all of the issued shares in Viela Bio for $53 per share in cash, which represents a fully diluted equity value of approximately $3.05 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter 2021.

AstraZeneca confirmed they have agreed to divest Viela Bio as part of the deal, anticipating cash proceeds of circa $760-$780 million upon closing of the sale. The company said they do not expect an impact to financial guidance for 2020 following the deal. 2021 financial guidance is to be issued when the company announces full year results next week.

Viela Bio was created when AstraZeneca spun out the unit from its MedImmune arm into an independent biotech company in February 2018.

AstraZeneca has been headline news recently after the company’s very public spat with the European Union over Covid-19 vaccine supply. The EU finally recommended the vaccine for use late on Friday but still claims the company has reneged on its promise to deliver vaccines to EU member states. However, over the weekend the two parties appeared to settle some differences with the company promising to supply an additional 9 million doses by the end of Q1, taking the total to around 40 million doses.