Shire Plc is seeking a higher takeover offer from U.S. drugmaker AbbVie Inc that would value the company at about 31 billion pounds ($53 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. Shire, which on Friday confirmed it has met with AbbVie to discuss a takeover, had asked AbbVie to sweeten its offer to close to 53 pounds per share in order to get blessing from the Dublin-based maker of drugs for rare diseases, the people said.Shire's asking price is not far above AbbVie's latest 51.15 pounds per share bid and the relative small valuation gap suggests the two sides may be getting closer to agreeing on a deal.Under British takeover rules AbbVie has until July 18 to announce a firm offer for Shire or walk away.Representatives for Shire and AbbVie did not respond on Saturday to requests for comment. The sources asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
AbbVie Inc. (AbbVie) is a research-based pharmaceuticals company. Shares of ABBV fell by 0.74% or $-0.41/share to $54.96. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $42.25 and as high as $58.27. On average, 5832730 shares of ABBV exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 13593033.
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