London-based rare disease drugmaker Shire divested its oncology business to the French drug company Servier for $2.4 billion, reports Reuters.
Shire will consider giving proceeds from the sales to shareholders through a buyback and said additional divestitures were possible. The drugmaker, which is fighting a two-year stock slump, had about $19 billion in debt at the end of 2017.
The divestiture comes as Takeda Pharmaceutical is contemplating a possible acquisition of Shire, which has a market value of $47 billion. While Takeda cited Shire's oncology division as a motivating factor in a potential takeover, analysts don't believe the divestiture will be a deal breaker, according to Reuters.
If interested, Takeda must announce a bid for Shire by April 25 based on U.K. acquisition regulations.
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