UK: Shire shareholders approve $32 bln Baxalta merger

Shareholders in Bannockburn-based drug company Baxalta and Irish firm Shire voted Friday to approve the $32 billion merger of the two firms.

The combined company, which will be run from Shire’s Dublin headquarters, aims to be a world leader in treating hemophilia and other rare diseases, and will benefit from Ireland’s lower corporate tax rate.

Announced in January, the deal is expected to save around $250 million a year in corporate administrative functions, Shire said. The merger was sealed after the companies determined it would not be blocked by U.S. tax laws that attempt to prevent tax avoidance via so-called corporate inversions that ship profits to lower tax jurisdictions.

Ludwig Hantson, Baxalta’s CEO, will step down, and the merged company will be known as Shire and be run by Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov. Shire’s U.S. offices are based in Lexington, Mass., and the company has not said what will happen to the 800 workers at Baxalta’s Bannockburn offices.

Full Content: Chicago Tribune

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