Upjohn Stock Up on Word It’s Retained Goldman Sachs
Upjohn Co., a widely rumored takeover target, has retained investment banker Goldman, Sachs & Co. as an adviser, Wall Street stock traders said Wednesday, sparking a sharp rise in the drug company’s stock.
Goldman Sachs, which has a policy of not commenting on client matters, declined to do so when asked about Upjohn.
A spokesman for Upjohn Co., headquartered in Kalamazoo, Mich., said, “We engage a number of investment bankers from time to time in a number of activities, and many of these activities are confidential in nature and not appropriate for disclosure.”
The company said there were no corporate developments that would account for the stock activity.
Rumors About Du Pont
Upjohn jumped $2.50 to $40.875, after rising $1 Tuesday, and was the most heavily traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday with more than 4.5 million shares trading hands.
The drug company’s usual daily volume is 600,000 to 700,000 shares, the Upjohn spokesman said.
Arbitragers, or stock speculators, said Upjohn had retained Goldman Sachs to possibly represent the company should it receive a takeover offer.
Upjohn is rumored to be a target of Du Pont Co. and a host of foreign firms, including Swiss chemical and drug firm Ciba-Geigy Ltd. and Switzerland’s F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co., traders said.
Du Pont declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. subsidiary of Ciba-Geigy also declined comment, saying, “Our policy is not to discuss strategic business plans.”
Roche also said it had no comment as a matter of policy.
Other drug companies’ stock prices rose in sympathy with Upjohn, traders said. Pfizer Inc., for example, rose $1.25 to $58.625; Syntex Corp. added 62.5 cents to $48.75, while Rorer Group rose 37.5 cents to $45.375.
Takeover rumors have been escalating in the merger-driven pharmaceutical industry since a series of big deals were announced earlier this year.
In the largest, Squibb Corp. and Bristol-Myers Co. agreed to merge in July in a $11.5-billion deal, creating the world’s second-largest drug company after Merck & Co. Earlier, Beecham Group PLC and Smithkline Beckman Corp. also agreed to combine, creating the third-largest drug company, with more than $6.7 billion in annual sales.
