Hints and tips:
...Continued deal activity lifted shares of several device makers following Zimmer Holdings’ purchase of rival Biomet for $13.4bn....
...The question, however, is not whether Biomet wants S&N, but whether it can afford it....
...The list of realistic bidders for S&N is limited to a handful of US groups: Biomet, Johnson & Johnson, Zimmer and Stryker....
...There were also differences in the valuations that the funds gave to their holdings in Biomet, a medical instruments company, which was marked at 100 cents on the dollar at Blackstone and 90 cents at TPG...
...Cazenove saw US peer Biomet as the only likely trade buyer. However. Biomet was taken private at the top of the market and is burdened with too much debt, the broker said....
...In the case, Zimmer and four other companies – Depuy, Biomet, Stryker of the US and Smith & Nephew of the UK – were accused of paying large sums of money to surgeons as well as giving them trips and expensive...
...S&N and three other device makers – Zimmer, Biomet and Johnson & Johnson – paid out a combined $311m to settle an investigation carried out by the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey....
...Biomet shares were up 48 cents at $33.88 in early New York trading. Analysts speculate that S&N would likely demerge Biomet’s dental business, which has been valued at $2bn....
...The consortium outbid several other buyers, including Smith & Nephew, which was also beaten by Zimmer in the race to buy Switzerland’s Centerpulse in 2003....
...Private equity is attracted to healthcare groups because they offer strong cash flows, provide services to the growing numbers of older people and have extensive property holdings....
...And a regulatory probe hit shares in Biomet and Zimmer Holdings, which both confirmed they had received subpoenas from the Department of Justice over an antitrust investigation....
...Biomet sank 5.2 per cent to $33.18 and Zimmer Holdings shed 6.9 per cent to $58.70....
...Biomet and Zimmer Holdings, the medical products makers, continued to slide following their announcements on Monday that they had received subpoenas from the Department of Justice in relation to an anti-trust...
...A deal for Biomet would create an orthopaedic specialist worth up to $20bn and capable of competing against the US sector leaders, Zimmer and Stryker....
...My investments in US companies such as Zimmer, Biomet and in our own Smith & Nephew have produced mixed results....
...The largest companies in this market are Zimmer, Stryker and Biomet of the US and our own Smith & Nephew. Their business models display tremendous advantages over their pharmaceutical rivals....
...Smith & Nephew, the medical devices maker added 2.3 per cent to 531p as investors read across upbeat results from its rivals in the orthopaedics market, Biomet, Stryker and Zimmer....
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