Sprawdź pojedyncze zmiany

'@@ -1,0 +1,1 @@ +<br>By Byron Kaye<br> <br>SYDNEY, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Australian biopharmaceutical giant CSL Ltd confirmed on Monday it is in talks to buy Swiss drugmaker Vifor Pharma Ltd in a deal reported by media to be worth about A$10 billion ($7.2 billion), as it looks to diversify beyond blood plasma products.<br> <br>The talks, which were first reported earlier this month, come as Australia's fourth-largest company faces pressure to generate growth outside its main businesses of collecting blood plasma to make treatments for rare diseases and vaccine production.<br> <br>CSL has pointed to a soft market for blood collections due to COVID-19 movement restrictions and concerns about the coronavirus, although it has said collection rates are improving for the business unit which generates nearly nine-tenths of its profit.<br> <br>Prospects for CSL's vaccine business, meanwhile, dimmed after it suspended its own COVID-19 vaccine development and Australia opted for Pfizer/BioNTech's product as its major inoculation tool over AstraZeneca Plc's shot, which CSL manufactures.<br> <br>CSL, which declined to comment on media reports earlier this month about a possible buyout of Vifor, issued a brief statement saying the company "confirms that it is in discussions with Vifor Pharma Ltd regarding a potential transaction".<br> <br>The statement gave no further detail and added that there was no certainty any deal would eventuate.<br> <br>A successful deal would be CSL's biggest acquisition and give it access to Vifor's treatments for iron deficiency, kidney and cardio-renal diseases, as well as its production sites in Switzerland and Portugal, analysts said.<br> <br>However, they expressed concern that the benefits to CSL may be limited since there were no obvious major cost-savings from joining the companies.<br><br>Plus, they added, Vifor had a record of volatile earnings.<br> <br>"Should CSL be able to pick it up cheaply, potentially using equity, we can see the merits," said Damien Klassen, [https://socialbrewsf.com/ https://socialbrewsf.com] head of investments at Nucleus Wealth, which holds CSL shares.<br> <br>"However, given Vifor's issues, the price paid will be very important," he added.<br> <br>Shares of Vifor surged over 20% when news of the potential deal was first reported.<br><br>Based on Friday's closing price, the company had a market value of 7.68 billion Swiss francs ($8.34 billion).<br> <br>CSL shares closed slightly lower on Monday, against a higher overall Australia market.<br> <br>($1 = 0.9213 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney and Shashwat Awasthi and Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Richard Pullin)<br> '