Takeda Pharmaceutical says its $13.7 billion acquisition of Nycomed is enough to digest for now. Despite the strong yen, which has been fueling Japanese companies' buyouts abroad, Takeda President Yasuchika Hasegawa says he's not interested in any other big deals. Small deals, perhaps. But Takeda needs to follow through on combining with Nycomed, because it's a tricky process that few companies do properly, he told the Wall Street Journal.
"We would like to focus on integration for the next year or two," Hasegawa told the Journal, adding that Japanese companies historically haven't been fantastic at integrating foreign buyouts, especially when the deals were aimed at shedding costs and improving efficiency. Japan is short on managers who can make that sort of restructuring work, he said.
Acquisitions outside Japan tend to work better when companies are looking to fill in gaps--such as Takeda's mission of bringing on products and pipeline projects that can help make up for the loss of patent protection on its leading drug, Actos, Hasegawa said.
Ironically, Hasegawa said domestic dealmaking is even harder. Integrating the acquisition of a fellow Japanese drugmaker would be so difficult, Takeda isn't even looking at the possibility. "It's not worth it," he told the Journal.
- read the WSJ story