AbbVie Sued by Pension Fund Over $54.5 Billion Shire Deal AbbVie Inc.’s $54.5 billion purchase of Shire Plc (SHP) to move its legal address abroad and lower its taxes could trigger significant capital-gains liability for shareholders, a Louisiana pension fund said. The Shire acquisition is the largest of a recent wave of tax-inversion buyouts. AbbVie should be barred from holding a shareholder vote on the takeover until it addresses problems with the deal, including a coercive $545 million termination fee, the Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 60 Pension Plan said today in a Delaware Chancery Court suit. The suit comes as U.S. government officials vowed last month to deter U.S. companies from buying foreign competitors to avoid domestic taxes. President Barack Obama called U.S. companies seeking foreign mergers to circumvent taxes “unpatriotic” and Treasury Department officials said they are considering options to crack down on such transactions. North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie (ABBV)’s and Dublin-based Shire’s tax-inversion deal “is considered a taxable event by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service,” the New Orleans-based pension fund said in the complaint. That means some AbbVie investors will “owe taxes they otherwise would never have had to pay” and may have to sell their shares to satisfy that liability, the fund said. Gulden Mesara, an AbbVie [...] ilinnews/abbvie-sued-by-pension-fund-over-54-5-billion-shire-deal/
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:15:32 +0000
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