Status: Clearance, Mitigation
Acquirer: Creat Group Corporation (China); Tiancheng (Germany) Pharmaceutical Holdings AG
Acquired: Biotest AG (Germany)
Value: Approx. US$1.4 Billion
Industry: Healthcare
UPDATE: On January 19, 2018, Biotest AG announced that “approval has been given by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)” for the pending takeover offer by Tiancheng (Germany) Pharmaceutical Holdings AG, the acquisition company of the Creat Group Corporation, and the acquisition “will take place in the next few days.” (Biotest AG Press Release, Biotest AG: All conditions met for Creat takeover of Biotest, Jan. 19, 2018.) Reuters reported that Biotest AG stated that it “sold its U.S. operations, allaying national security concerns by U.S. authorities and paving the way for the German company’s sale to a Chinese investor.” (Reuters, Biotest sheds U.S. business to allay U.S. concerns of Chinese takeover, Jan. 19, 2018.)
Posted on January 18, 2018
Status: Withdrawn and Refiled
On April 7, 2017, the Creat Group Corporation, a Chinese investment firm, announced that its indirect controlled German subsidiary, Tiancheng (Germany) Pharmaceutical Holdings AG, made a friendly tender offer for Biotest AG, a German based pharmaceutical company specializing in haematology, clinical immunology and intensive care medicine. (Takeover website of Tiancheng (Germany) Pharmaceutical Holdings AG.) Biotest AG conducts U.S. operations through its subsidiary, Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corporation. (See Biotest website, global locations webpage.) “All shares in Tiancheng (Germany) Pharmaceutical Holdings AG are held by Tiancheng International Investment Limited, Hong Kong,” which is a controlled holding company of Creat Group Corporation. According to the definitive tender offer document, the transaction is subject to the required approval of CFIUS, which stated that the parties intended to prefile a draft Notice with CFIUS in May 2017 and to conclude the CFIUS approval by August 2017. (Public Takeover Offer, ¶¶ 11.2.2, 11.3.4, May 18, 2017.) The offer provides that CFIUS approval must be obtained by January 18, 2017 as a condition precedent to the offer. (Id. ¶ 12.1.3.)
According to a November 2017 press release by Biotest, CFIUS “informed the parties in writing that that the tender offer by Tiancheng to the shareholders of Biotest AG raises national security concerns” that “cannot be mitigated under the current transaction structure.” (Biotest Press Release, Tender Offer by Tiancheng (Germany) Pharmaceutical Holdings AG / Tiancheng withdrawal of application of transaction from CFIUS and refiling, Nov. 7, 2017.) The parties “decided to withdraw their notice and to refile a new application with the request for an expedited review period.” (Id.) The press release further stated that the parties “plan to continue to actively engage in further discussions with CFIUS to explore means of mitigation that may be amenable to CFIUS to resolve outstanding U.S. national security concerns or to take other alternative measures that could allow the parties to proceed with the transaction.” (Id.)