Biogen Idec announces preliminary results of tender offer

Biogen Idec has announced the preliminary results of its recent tender offer for a number of shares of common stock in the company that closed at midnight on June 26th 2007.

The company had previously launched a modified Dutch auction tender offer for these shares and expects a repurchase of 56,428,198 shares – 16.4 per cent of the firm – for a total price of approximately $3 billion (1.5 billion pounds), which equates to a price of $53 per share.

Biogen Idec notes that this figure is a preliminary one, with the total number of shares to be repurchased needing confirmation by the depositary, with payment for the shares occurring soon after this is received.

“Based on a preliminary count by Computershare Trust, an aggregate of 56,428,198 shares were properly tendered and not withdrawn at or below $53, including 27,438,208 shares that were tendered through notice of guaranteed delivery,” the company reported.

Goldman, Sachs & Co and Merril Lynch & Co acted as financial advisors for this tender offer, while Goldman, Sachs Credit Partners and Merrill Lynch Capital have also agreed to a $1.5 billion term loan which will be used by Biogen Idec to part-finance its tender offer.

A month ago, Biogen Idec reported that its strong cash flow from sales of Avonex and Rituxan and its confidence in Tysabri had placed the company in a good position to return value to its shareholders while maintaining investment in its research and development pipeline.