Perrigo pays executives bonuses for fending off Mylan offers

While many companies pay bonuses when executives make a deal to sell their business, Dublin-based Perrigo’s executives also got paid not to.

After successfully fending off Mylan's $26 billion hostile takeover attempt last year, Perrigo chief executive Officer Joe Papa received additional restricted stock in December worth $1.5 million at the time, and a $500,000 cash bonus, the company disclosed in a March 4th preliminary proxy statement. The $2 million pay bump was awarded for Mr Papa's "key contributions related to Mylan's hostile takeover attempt" between April 2015 and November 2015, when Perrigo shareholders rejected the deal at the urging of the drugmaker's management.

In addition, chief financial officer Judy Brown and general counsel Todd Kingma each received stock awards valued at $375,000 and cash bonuses for equal amounts. The stock grants will vest in December 2017, the document shows.

Mylan made public its proposal to buy Perrigo in April of last year, chasing after the company's stable of over-the-counter medications. The hostile attempt started a months-long war of words between Mr Papa and Mylan executive chairman Robert Coury.

Mr Papa repeatedly said that Mylan’s offer wasn’t good enough, and that his company had better growth prospects on its own. His board unanimously rejected the hostile bid, calling it inadequate. About 40 per cent of Perrigo shareholders eventually voted for the deal, short of the necessary amount.

After the Perrigo takeover fell apart, Mylan proceeded with a deal to acquire Meda for about $7.2 billion of cash and stock. Meda had previously rejected two offers from Mylan.

Bloomberg