AbbVie’s €34bn bid for Shire plc

AbbVie has said its $46.5bn (€34.1bn) bid for Shire plc offers "compelling" value for Shire shareholders and that it won’t rule out going hostile in its drive to acquire the drugmaker.

Joining the companies will accelerate sales growth for both ,while cutting AbbVie’s tax rate by almost 10 percentage points with a tax inversion, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Shire’s products are “complementary” to AbbVie’s, and the US-based company can improve their global marketing, AbbVie chief executive Richard Gonzalez said.