Actelion (VTX:ATLN) shareholders today reportedly approved spinning off the company’s early clinical assets and drug discovery branch into a new company. The move keeps Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) $30 billion takeover on track to close in the 2nd quarter.
The newly formed biopharmaceutical company will be called Idorsia Ltd and led by Actelion CEO Jean-Paul Clozel. Shares in Idorsia are expected to list on the SIX Swiss Exchange on the day that Johnson & Johnson’s tender offer closes.
J&J will initially hold 16% of Idorsia shares, the U.S. healthcare giant said. It plans to de-list Actelion.
“After a very successful 2 decades, resulting in an unprecedented share price increase of more than 2,000% since our IPO, the next chapter for Actelion awaits,” chairman Jean-Pierre Garnier said, according to Reuters. “With the successful tender offer by Johnson & Johnson, regulatory approvals on track, and today’s approval by the shareholders to spin out Idorsia, the transaction is moving ahead at full steam.”
Last month, Johnson & Johnson said that it controls nearly 78% of voting rights in its acquisition of Actelion. Janssen, J&J’s Swiss subsidiary, declared the tender offer successful.
J&J will have 10 more trading days, between April 6 and April 21, for the subsequent acceptance of the tender offer, according to the company.
