No surprise, as Axis-Shield tells shareholders to reject Alere's "opportunistic and hostile" bid
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Axis-Shield's board of directors has formally instructed company shareholders to reject Alere’s takeover offer, maintaining that the bid of 460p per share represents "an unacceptably low multiple" that fundamentally undervalues its business. Axis-Shield described Alere’s offer as "opportunistic and hostile", and said it did not take into account: the benefits Axis-Shield is beginning to reap from its Afinion point-of-care (POC) testing platform; planned European launch of the firm’s Afinion lipid panel by the end of the year, which will give it access to a market which is estimated to grow to around $500m by 2013; the diabetes testing opportunity in Asia and emerging markets, where the company has placed over 21,000 of its NycoCard instruments, an older POC device. In Axis-Shield’s recently-reported first-half results, 43% year-on-year growth in Afinion sales helped drive overall revenues of £56.2m ($92.0m), up 10% over the same period last year (www.clinica.co.uk, 24 August 2011). In making its latest decision, Axis-Shield’s board has been advised by JP Morgan Cazenove.