Teva Could Be Seeking Mega-Cap Status (TEVA, PFE, NVS, MRK, SNY)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA) is slowly becoming one of the biggest drug makers in the world. This morning the company is up on the news that it won the bidding process to acquire German generic drug maker Ratiopharm GmbH. The price tag: 3.6 billion Euros, or about $5 billion today in a cash and debt deal. Had this been 2009, the price tag would have been closer to $6 billion in the Euro currency.
Ratiopharm is a top generic drug maker in Germany and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) was supposed to be one of the other bidders as it has not frowned upon having generic drugs of its own. Ratiopharm had about 750 drugs and a solid pipeline.
Teva is now one of the top drug companies in the world with most operational sales in North America and in Europe. Teva’s last big transaction was Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. for about $7.46 billion. The company said this deal will allow growth in Germany, as well as higher growth markets in Spain, Italy and France.
Usually companies buying other companies suffer a drop on dilution concerns. Not Teva. Shares are up 4% after the open and the $62.58 price hit today was not just a 52-week high. That marks an all-time high. Its $55 billion market cap is still far from the mega-cap status of the $100 billion mark. But there are only a handful of companies there at that level of a mega-cap status. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS), Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) are all among those which have a $100 billion market cap and higher.
The last date you have to go back to see a TEVA stock double is December 2006 when the stock was just under $30.00. Calling for stocks to double yet again is tricky and that is not quite our intent here. But if the company continues to make acquisitions, the market cap can get there without the stock needing to double.
Teva has shown that it likes to do deals. Analysts are looking for 10% organic earnings growth ahead as the Thomson Reuters estimate for 2010 is $4.55 EPS versus $5.04 EPS in 2011. That is not considering the effects of this merger, and the deal is expected to close late this year.
As far as other top drug companies, here is how Teva’s $55 billion market cap compares:
- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) $138.9B
- Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) $124.7B
- Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) $118.6B
- Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY) $101.6B
- GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK) $95.9B
- Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) $84.6B
- AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) $64.9B
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) $44.5B
- Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) $39.8B
JON C. OGG
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