CSL Ltd, the world’s second-largest maker of blood-plasma products, said the US Federal Trade Commission’s officials recommended legal action to block its proposed US$3.1 billion acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp.
CEO Brian McNamee met with FTC commissioners in Washington on Friday to discuss the proposed acquisition, CSL said yesterday. The Melbourne-based company said it was told during the meeting that FTC officials recommended that commissioners start legal action in the US District Court to block the deal.
CSL shares fell as much as 3.1 percent after the announcement, which UBS AG said “effectively” ends the purchase.
Failure to buy Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based Talecris would jeopardize CSL’s bid to overtake Baxter International Inc as the leader in the US$15 billion global market for medical treatments derived from blood plasma.
“CSL legal challenge to the FTC has the potential to drag out,” Andrew Goodsall and Dan Hurren, UBS health-care analysts in Sydney, wrote in a note yesterday.
The FTC is unlikely to go against its officials’ advice, “effectively ending the deal,” wrote the analysts, who kept their “buy” rating on the company.
CSL lost 0.8 percent to A$30.65 as of 1:23pm in Sydney trading, compared with a 0.9 percent decline in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.
“We still believe that we have a good case and that our arguments are valid,” Rachel David, a spokeswoman for CSL, said by phone.
The company would not decide whether to contest the FTC’s decision in court until the commission publishes its reasons, which CSL expects on Thursday, David said.
“It’s a difficult environment globally in a niche market,” she said. “We’d need to see the detail of their recommendations.”
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