ACETO Corporation, an international company engaged in the development, marketing, sale and distribution of Human Health products, Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Performance Chemicals, announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to sell the assets of Rising Pharmaceuticals and Rising's subsidiaries to Shore Suven Pharma, Inc. for gross cash proceeds of $15 million, plus the assumption of operating liabilities and customer obligations related to the acquired business, on a cash-free and debt-free basis.
The sale was conducted through a Court-supervised process under Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. Under that process, Shore Suven Pharma's purchase agreement served as the "stalking horse agreement" and an auction would have been conducted had the Company received qualified offers from other bidders reflecting potentially higher and/or otherwise better terms. No such bids were received prior to the bid deadline. Therefore, no auction was conducted and Shore Suven Pharma was selected as the successful bidder of the Pharma Business on March 29, 2019. The transaction is expected to close on April 19, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of certain other conditions.
"Today's Court approval brings closure to the sales process for Rising Pharmaceuticals' customers and employees and paves the way for a seamless transition of its portfolio, customer programs and manufacturing and drug development relationships to Shore Suven Pharma," said William C. Kennally III, Chief Executive Officer of Aceto.
As previously announced, Aceto has also entered into a "stalking horse agreement" to sell its chemicals business through a comparable Court-supervised process. To facilitate the sale of both Rising Pharmaceuticals and its chemicals business assets, Aceto and its U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey (Newark) on February 19, 2019. The Company expects to complete the disposition of its chemicals businesses before its fiscal year end on June 30, 2019.