Kirkland Advises Eli Lilly on Agreement to Acquire Centessa Pharmaceuticals for up to $7.8 Billion
Kirkland & Ellis advised Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) on its definitive agreement to acquire Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: CNTA), a clinical-stage company developing a new class of medicines for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness and other neurological conditions. Under the terms of the transaction agreement, Lilly will acquire all of the issued and to be issued share capital of Centessa for $38.00 in cash per share plus one non-transferrable contingent value right (CVR) that entitles the holder to receive up to an aggregate of $9.00 subject to the achievement of three milestones, for total potential aggregate per share consideration of up to $47.00. The upfront cash consideration represents an aggregate equity value of approximately $6.3 billion and the CVR represents an additional potential aggregate equity value of approximately $1.5 billion.
Read the transaction press release
The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Keri Schick Norton, Sarkis Jebejian, Steven Choi, Dipak Bhundia, Bonian Wu, Sophie Chalet, Sharon Law, Anne Hicks and Christina Kim; capital markets lawyers Sharon Freiman, Sophia Hudson, Tamar Donikyan and Elise Wang; tax lawyers Dean Shulman, Liam Murphy, Mavnick Nerwal, Tomás McGrath and Tex Adkins; antitrust & competition lawyers Andrea Murino and Sam Morelli; technology & IP transactions lawyers Shellie Freedman, Joanna Schlingbaum, Jackie Orfield and Michael Johnston; and executive compensation lawyers Rob Fowler, Lilibeth Clelo-Garcha, Anna Haynes and Andrea Bucher.
