Hedge fund mogul Paul Singer told investors that he is considering suing AbbVie over the AbbVie-Shire drug merger that recently fell apart in October.
AbbVie had expected to lower its tax burden by buying Shire and moving its legal address to the U.K. but changes to tax regulations announced Sept. 22 by the U.S. Treasury Department thwarted that plan. When AbbVie pulled out of the deal on Oct. 15, stock plunged 22 percent on the London Stock Exchange. Elliott International, Singer's hedgefund management company, sold 1.6 million shares.
Singer has suggested that AbbVie made false and misleading statements about the transaction prior to withdrawing from the deal. He added that, "While the Treasury regulations reduced the attractiveness of the transaction to AbbVie, it would have been significantly accretive to AbbVie while preserving the aforementioned strategic benefits.”
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