Takeda makes $61 billion bid for drugmaker Shire - sources

By Greg Roumeliotis and Ben Martin

LONDON (Reuters) - Takeda Pharmaceutical has made a bid for Shire that values the London-listed drugmaker at around $61 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The Japanese company's indicative cash-and-stock takeover proposal is worth about 46.50 pounds per share, the sources said.

The moves comes ahead of an April 25 deadline for Takeda to make a firm offer or walk away from the FTSE 100 company. Shares in Shire were up 6.3 percent at 39.90 pounds at 1113 GMT in London.

Takeda confirmed last month it was considering an offer for Shire, which sells treatments for rare diseases and attention deficit disorder.

A takeover would be transformational for Takeda, which has a market value of about $37.8 billion, making it smaller than its bid target.

Its bid values Shire at approximately 43 billion pounds, or $61 billion, Thomson Reuters data showed.

A spokesman for Takeda declined to comment and Shire did not reply to a request for comment.

The bid comes amid a surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the UK as companies take advantage of cheap debt to pursue dealmaking opportunities.

The value of M&A involving British firms rose by 56.5 percent to $164.3 billion in the first three months of the year, the most since 2007, Thomson Reuters data shows.

($1 = 0.7039 pounds)

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Ben Martin; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)