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...Mr Wijers transformed AkzoNobel from a loosely co-ordinated conglomerate of chemical concerns into a coherent company focused on the paint and coatings and specialty chemicals businesses....
...Schering-Plough has expanded in animal health, reinforced with its purchase of Organon....
...Schering-Plough said profit declined 48 per cent to $291m because of costs associated with buying Organon Biosciences for $16bn in November – but the figure was ahead of most analysts’ estimates....
...Smaller deals have included Bristol-Myers Squibb’s takeover of Adnexus, Schering-Plough’s purchase of Organon, and Glaxo’s acquisition of Domantis....
...Akzo is also looking to sell its pharmaceutical unit Organon to Schering-Plough for $14.4bn. Akzo stock has gained more than 7.7 per cent since it announced the sale of its drug business....
...Schering has made efforts to reduce its dependence on cholesterol drugs, particularly with its $14bn acquisition of Organon BioSciences....
...Schering reported net income of $713m or 45 cents per common share compared with $287m, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier, including a big boost related to the acquisition of Akzo Nobel NV’s Organon...
...Goldman Sachs & Co. acted as financial advisor to Schering-Plough on Monday’s transaction, and Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Akzo Nobel....
...He called Organon “an unappreciated gem” among European drugmakers....
...Amongst these, six firms groups are singled out for having upside potential of greater than 20 per cent: ENI, Continental, Metro, DSM, Akzo Nobel (which even after the sale of Organon still has break-up...
...Yet before anybody gets carried away with all the rhetoric of how high-speed trains will one day revolutionise pan-European travel, nobody should forget how painful pan-European cross-border co-operation...
...In deal news, Schering-Plough fell 0.4 per cent to $23.95 after it said it would buy Organon BioSciences, the medicines business of Akzo Nobel, the Dutch chemicals group, for $14.4bn....
...Akzo Nobel rose another 0.8 per cent to €54.11 after gaining 15 per cent on Monday as analysts welcomed the sale of its Organon drugs unit to Schering-Plough of the US....
...Analysts said Akzo, which had previously been looking to float 30 per cent of Organon Biosciences, now had a warchest and could launch a bid for ICI....
...“There is no ethical reason why we can’t kill a virtual human,” says Thomas Paterson, Entelos co-founder and senior vice-president, who used to design aerospace simulations. “You learn from failures....
...chemicals group Akzo Nobel rallied 4 per cent to €44.35 after it said it was seeking shareholder approval to spin off its pharmaceuticals operations and float up to 30 per cent of the separate entity – Organon...
...Selling all of Organon could raise €6-7bn and would allow Akzo to pay down debt and deal with the pensions deficit inherited from the takeover of Courtalds in 1998....
...“These will allow more precise questioning – for instance, those assessing regarding attitudes towards the frequency and mode of application,” says Farid Saad, who co-ordinates Schering’s social research...
...The termination of a deal to co-promote Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug, with Janssen-Cilag, a UK pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson’s, provided a pre-tax boost of €149m ($194m) to the Organon...
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