Perfectly orchestrated by Biontech
That is rather rare: Company A buys company B - and both shares go up. Biontech has achieved this feat with its takeover bid for Curevac. Or to put it another way: investors also consider this takeover to make perfect sense. In this case, one plus one equals more than two. This is because Biontech CEO Ugur Sahin and his team have chosen a good time to strike at the domestic competitor. And for several reasons:
On the one hand, the Biontech share – the currency of this deal – has risen significantly since the beginning of the month. The share price jump was triggered by the announcement of a multi-billion euro partnership with US pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop a cancer medication. The more valuable the Biontech share, the fewer company shares Biontech shareholders have to cede to their Curevac counterparts.
Industry challenges
On the other hand, the German and European biotech industry is facing major challenges that can be better overcome by joining forces: Research costs in this country are high, approval procedures are slow, skilled labour is in short supply, and investment is harder to come by than in the USA, as the consulting firm EY recently outlined in its German Biotechnology Report 2025. The imponderable geopolitical situation, keyword tariffs, makes things even more difficult.
It is only logical that Biontech (Mainz) and Curevac (Tübingen), two national flagship companies in the industry, are now joining forces: not only are they relatively close to each other, but they also complement each other in their mRNA research for cancer therapy. Patent disputes that have gone as far as the Federal Patent Court have shown just how close the two companies' research is. These disputes should now – of course – come to an end.
It is probably a foregone conclusion that Curevac shareholders will vote in favour of the deal, although the offer seems rather low compared to the industry-standard valuation, with an earnings multiple of 6. However, the Curevac share has hardly shown any signs of life for some time now. It should not have been difficult to come to an agreement with the major shareholders Bund and Dietmar Hopp. In view of the empty product pipeline, the current offer appears to be a good exit option. Biontech boss Sahin has organised it perfectly.
