Financings in Brief: Genzyme
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Genzyme: Offers $93 mil. in shares of Genzyme General Division common stock to acquire the assets of Genzyme Development Partners, L.P., also called the Surgical Aids Partnership. Genzyme established the Partnership in 1989 when it raised $36.8 mil. to fund development of surgical products to prevent postoperative adhesions. Premarket approval applications for the first of such products -- Seprafilm and Sepracoat -- are pending at FDA, and the company recently received the CE mark for Seprafilm. The stock offer "is in lieu of Genzyme's existing option," which stipulates that the surgical aids products business operate as a joint venture for two years following a product approval, after which Genzyme has an option to take over the partnership's interests in exchange for a $26 mil. lump-sum cash payment and 10% royalty payments for 10 years. The offer stipulates that shares be valued based on average closing price of Genzyme General Division stock "for the 20 trading days immediately preceding the fifth trading day prior to closing of the acquisition, provided that the average closing price is at least $60.99 and not more than $82.51," Genzyme says