International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised global pharmaceutical business Solvay Group on the sale, announced today, of its entire Pharmaceuticals Sector to global healthcare company Abbott Laboratories.
The sale is worth a total enterprise value of approximately €5.2bn, and includes a purchase price of €4.5bn in cash and additional potential payments of up to €300m if certain milestones are met between 2011 and 2013. It also includes the assumption of certain liabilities, which Solvay values at approximately €400m.
The transaction is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2010, pending approval by the relevant competition authorities.
Freshfields’ team was led by corporate partner Geert Verhoeven in Brussels, and included antitrust, competition and trade partners Laurent Garzaniti and Thomas Janssens, also in Brussels, and corporate partner Timothy Wilkins in New York, working with corporate counsel David Roger, ACT associates Jan Blockx and Marcio Soares and corporate associates Aurélie Vanden Broecke, Florence Renard, Tom Van Hoof and Anne-Sophie De Clercq (all in Brussels). The wider Freshfields team included lawyers from the firm’s employment, pensions and benefits, tax and IP/IT practices.