Takeover instrument

18 December 2002 By Rob Cox, Rob Cox, Rob Cox, Rob Cox Follow @rob1cox

How GE justifies that is not clear. The deal is a lesson in what happens when a small fry takes on a giant on its home turf. The price is a near 50% premium to the Finnish medical technology group’s Tuesday close.

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General Electric agreed to acquire Instrumentarium, a Finnish maker of medical technology, for E2bn in cash, or E40 a share.

Instrumentarium, which makes medical equipment for anesthesia and critical care applications, had sales of E1bn, including $242m from the US business, Spacelabs Medical, that it bought in July.

Under terms of the transaction, the Finnish company's board can recommend a special dividend payment of E0.70 a share, up to E200m, to be paid before closing. The amount of the dividend payment will be subtracted from the total purchase price.

CSFB acted for Instrumentarium and Goldman Sachs worked for GE.

"Instrumentarium is an excellent company with an outstanding reputation among healthcare customers,'' GE chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt said in a statement.

"We plan to grow Instrumentarium even further by investing in new technologies to improve clinical workflow, physician confidence and patient outcomes," Immelt said.

Takeover instrument

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