Warburg Pincus Takes 5%+ Stake in WuXi PharmaTech (WX)

One thing we want to look for today are pieces of green in a sea of red; aside from gold there is very little. One name poking it's head above water is WuXi PharmaTech (WX) - which is a name I've been mentioning as showing some good relative strength of late. Before that the stock was in complete free fall as it appears word of some early investors (of scale) were looking to cash out. News out yesterday after the bell that Warburg Pincus is taking a big portion of this offload is helping to support the stock. I don't know what their intent is with the 5.4% stake (keep for a long time or flip it out soon) but it's putting a nice floor on the name today. It "sounds" like Warburg Pincus is taking a longer term stake from the comments below but we just never know. It is a nice strike of confidence in what I believe is a very ignored stock.

• WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX - News), a leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device research and development outsourcing company with operations in China and the United States, today announced that Warburg Pincus, the global private equity firm, has acquired 5.4% of its outstanding ordinary shares from affiliates of United Overseas Bank.
• At the closing of the transaction on July 2, 2008, affiliates of United Overseas Bank (UOB), one of the early venture investors of WuXi PharmaTech, sold to Warburg Pincus a total of 26,808,496 ordinary shares, equivalent to 3,351,062 American Depositary Shares. A beneficial ownership statement Schedule 13D with respect to this acquisition was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• ''We are pleased to become a shareholder of WuXi PharmaTech which is a clear leader in the rapidly growing drug and medical device outsourcing industry. WuXi has an impressive track record of growth and a distinguished reputation for customer service,'' said Mr. Stewart Hen, Managing Director of Warburg Pincus based in New York.