Ascendis’s rights issues is the best medicine for investors
INVESTORS are dosing heavily on acquisitive healthcare conglomerate Ascendis.On Monday the company, which listed in 2013, said its R1.2bn rights issue had been more than three times oversubscribed. This means it has comfortably secured the funding to clinch its proposed R7.3bn takeover of two international businesses, Remedica and sports nutrition company Scitec.Remedica is a specialist generics pharmaceutical company with a presence in more than 100 countries, and is a major supplier of pharmaceuticals to nongovernmental organisations. Scitec is a leading European sports nutrition company with sales in about 90 countries.The deals followed hard on the heels of Ascendis’s first major international foray when it snapped up a major stake in Spanish pharmaceutical company Farmalider last year.Ascendis has estimated that the new acquisitions, which are expected to be concluded next month, would boost the company’s market capitalisation from R7.7bn to more than R10bn. That would give it ...
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