Nestle to Acquire Peanut-Allergy Treatment Maker

Nestle said in a statement that its offer for Aimmune values the California-based biopharmaceutical firm, which it has been working with since 2016 and in which it already has a stake of around 25.6%, at $2.6 billion. “Aimmune has $261 million in cash and $134 million in debt. With our prior investment of $473 million in Aimmune, we’ll be making a cash payment of just under $2 billion,” says NHS head Greg Behar.

Jill Fromer/iStockphoto

Nestle estimates that up to 240 million people worldwide suffer from food allergies, with peanut allergy being the most common, and with Aimmune, NHS will have prevention, diagnostic, and medical treatment options available, Behar says.

Aimmune’s Palforzia peanut allergy treatment, which recently gained U.S. approval for children, has sales potential of $1 billion, Behar says. The deal is expected to add to organic growth in 2021 and to cash earnings by 2022/23.

The NHS business was on track to more than double sales by 2022, from 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.21 billion) in 2014, and was expected to close 2020 at 3.3 billion francs, he added. “(Palforzia) has 12 years of exclusivity, global rollout will follow and they have the technology platform for other food allergies in development,” Behar says.

Nestle, whose shares were up 0.6% at 0739 GMT, is offering a 174% premium to Aimmune’s closing share price of $12.60 on Aug. 28. Aimmune shares hit a record high in January when Palforzia was approved, then dropped during the coronavirus crisis.

Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy says the deal was “another milestone” for NHS after it bought Atrium in 2017.

Nestle has a market capitalization of just under 317 billion Swiss francs ($350 billion), Refinitiv data showed.

($1 = 0.9035 Swiss francs)