Fink Assumes Health Care Banking Role at Baird

Veteran banker Jeffrey A. Fink recently joined Robert W. Baird & Co. as head of health care investment banking. Fink is backed by more than 20 years of investment banking experience, and has specialized in health care and life sciences for the last 13 of those years. Before joining Baird, he was with Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, where he helped the firm enter the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals markets. As he assumes his new position, he notes, “The plan is to expand the firm’s footprint and make our team a leading adviser to health care companies.” He notes that he will be able to leverage an already strong team at Baird, which has more than 20 professionals dedicated to health care and life sciences. “We have good research and distribution and all the other elements you need to mount a national effort.” Fink began his finance career at Kidder Peabody. He also spent eight years as a managing director at Vector Securities (subsequently Prudential Vector Securities), a boutique investment bank that focuses on health care and life sciences. Speaking to Mergers & Acquisitions magazine just after the announcement that Amgen would acquire the remaining interest in Tularik it did not already own for $1.3 billion, Fink said he doesn’t see this deal as a precursor to a wave of biotech deals. He notes that although there are probably 500 pre-commercial biotech companies potentially on the market, issues such as dilution, management succession, and the needed depth of scientific due diligence make these transactions difficult. In the case of Amgen, Fink thinks that the deal makes sense for the acquirer because it needed protein-based drugs to complement its strong, small-molecule properties. He notes that the Johnson & Johnson acquisition of Scios was a rare case of a major pharmaceuticals company that was willing to take the earnings-per-share dilution hit to acquire a biotech company. “You have to have confidence that the technology you’re buying is worth it, because in most biotech deals, you aren’t buying revenue,” he states. Fink expects to see activity in biometrics and medical devices in the next few quarters. For medical devices, in particular, he notes that the fact that many of these companies make products that can assist physicians and shorten patient’ recovery timetables will drive deal flow. As for cross-border deals, Fink says that despite favorable exchange rates, he doesn’t expect to see many European health care companies buying U.S. assets. “In many sectors, the health care delivery structures are so different that it would be hard for European acquirers to buy into the U.S. market.” On the other hand, he adds that there have been some acquisitions of European companies by U.S. players, as exemplified by General Electric’s acquisition of Instrumentarium. He sees any transatlantic deals that arise as more likely to feature U.S. buyers. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.majournal.com