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BRUSSELS, Belgium — UCB has entered an agreement to sell its Kremers Urban U.S. specialty generic drug business to private equity firms Advent International and Avista Capital Partners for $1.525 billion.
UCB, which announced the deal on Friday, said the transaction has been unanimously approved by its board of directors and is slate to close by the first quarter of 2015, pending customary closing conditions.
"This is another step for UCB to enhance focus on our core business in neurology and immunology," stated Roch Doliveux, chief executive officer of UCB.
Added Jean-Christophe Tellier, CEO-elect of UCB, "Our growing core business and UCB’s progressing early and late-stage pipeline now allow us to focus even more on providing innovative solutions to patients living with severe diseases."
UCB said it plans to use the proceeds from the divestiture to reduce indebtedness and increase the company’s strategic investments, to further spur growth and/or to further strengthen its innovative medicines pipeline.
"Kremers Urban has been an important enabler to build UCB’s core business. We thank our Kremers Urban colleagues for the excellent performance they have delivered," commented Detlef Thielgen, chief financial officer of UCB. "It’s now the right time from a value perspective to focus on our core business and to offer Kremers Urban further growth opportunities with two strong organizations that are well-equipped to help Kremers Urban continue to grow. UCB’s adjusted financial outlook for 2014 is unchanged for the core business. However, it is now taking into account the exit of the Kremers Urban business."
