Celltech: Building critical mass

Lesson: Cash is king, no matter what the source, and even mundane M&A can provide a transformational platform when it provides financial degrees of freedom.

Celltech (LSE:CCH; CLL, Slough, U.K.) has used acquisitions to build critical mass in the European environment, where it is much harder to access the capital to grow organically. Indeed, the company has raised money from the public equity markets only once, bringing in just under $50 million in its IPO at the end of 1993. ...