Baxter to further trim stake in Baxalta ahead of $32B Shire buyout

Baxter (NYSE:BAX) plans to further trim its stake in Baxalta (NYSE:BXLT), the biopharm business it spun out last year, reducing its ownership to 5.1% ahead of Baxalta’s $32 billion takeover by Shire (NSDQ:SHPGY).

In January, Baxter cut its stake in Baxalta from 19.4% to 13.8%. In the latest move, Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter will exchange about 59.4 million Baxalta shares at $39.40 apiece for some of the Baxter debt held by banks underwriting a Baxalta offering.

The offering, valued at about $2.34 billion, would leave Baxter holding 34.9 million BXLT shares, Baxalta said. That’s worth about $1.34 billion at the stock’s $38.22 price in mid-afternoon trading today.

In January, Shire agreed to buy Baxalta for about $32 billion after a 6-month courtship.

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