Shire: a tempting buy-out bet

Pharmaceuticals firm Shire is set to be taken over – but it’s cheap even if the deal fails.

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Adderall was a blockbuster drug for Shire
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In May, the Japanese pharmaceuticals company Takeda made a takeover bid for London-listed Shire (LSE: SHP). Takeda is offering a combination of cash and shares worth $62bn (at Takeda's current share price), which works out at £49 per share. Shire's share price is around £43, so if the bid goes through, Shire's shareholders stand to make a nice return of around 13% assuming Takeda's shares stay at around the same price.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri