Merck unlikely to undertake large-scale consumer health buys
November 21, 2013 Leave a comment
November 19, 2013 12:51 pm
Merck unlikely to undertake large-scale consumer health buys
By Andrew Jack
Merck of Germany is unlikely to undertake a large-scale acquisition in consumer health in the coming months, while being open to deals in “single-digit billions” across its other three divisions. In remarks following the group’s third-quarter results last week, Matthias Zachert, chief financial officer, appeared to rule out his company as a potential purchaser ifNovartis put its consumer health division up for sale in the coming months. He said that after significant restructuring leading to rising margins and a reduction in debt, Merck was “now open again to acquisitions” over the next two years, while stressing that they would be “targeted and focused” and “not in the double-digit billions”. He said deals were possible in its pharmaceuticals, performance materials and life science tools divisions, but that Novartis’s consumer health division was much larger than that of Merck, and multiples in the niche meant “it is not the right time for deals of global transformational scale”. Smaller acquisitions of individual products globally or in some countries were more likely, he said.
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