Huntleigh Technologies taken over by Getinge in £409m deal

9 December 2006

Getinge, Sweden. Swedish company Getinge AB has launched a takeover bid for the UK's Huntleigh Technology plc. Getinge has reported that its offer has been unanimously recommended by the Board of Huntleigh and accepted by shareholders representing 46.2% of the issued share capital, including the principal share holders, the Schild family. It has also received letters of intent from institutional shareholders representing 17.4% of the current issued share capital.

The offer values Huntleigh at approximately £409 of million. This represents a premium of about 28.0% on the closing price of 375 pence per ordinary share on 7 December 2006 and a premium of about 31% on the 6 month volume-weighted average price (366p). Consequently, the Huntleigh share price shot up from 375 to 475.5 by close of trade on Friday 8 December.

Huntleigh's product areas are pressure area care, patient positioning and transportation (beds, trolleys etc), intermittent pneumatic compression, and diagnostics and monitoring equipment. Interim 2006 trading results showed strong performance in overseas markets and lower than expected revenue from the UK. Total revenue increased by 16.3% from £99.0m in 2005 to £115.2m in the first half of 2006, with overseas trading up 26% and UK trade up only 0.8%.

Getinge is a leading supplier in infection control, extended care, and medical systems — surgical workplaces, cardio-pulmonary and critical care systems. It has a market value of SEK28bn (£2bn, €3bn) and had net sales in 2005 of over SEK5bn.

If the takeover is completed as expected in January 2007, Huntleigh will be integrated into Getinge Extended Care UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Getinge AB. This will create a "globally leading player" in patient handling, wound care and hygiene, with combined sales of approximately SEK6 billion and over 4,400 employees.

According to Getinge, Huntleigh will be a "perfect complement to Extended Care in terms of overlapping geographical presence and supplementary sales channels and products" — Huntleigh's main customers are hospitals, while Extended Care's are nursing homes. The merged company will have approximately 1,600 dedicated sales representatives and service technicians and will boost Extended Care's weak market position within wound care. Getinge also sees possibilities for future system innovations within patient care through "total bedside management", which integrates patient lifters, beds and information technology.

Johan Malmquist, President and CEO of Getinge said: "By combining both Groups, we can offer the combined customer base a broader product portfolio and a better service offering. Extended Care's business philosophy, to reduce care costs by increasing care quality and efficiency, is well in line with Huntleigh´s. The synergies between Extended Care and Huntleigh in terms of geography, products and sales channels are highly attractive. It is our goal to immediately implement integration in order to take advantage of the possibilities created by the merger. I look forward to welcoming Huntleigh´s management and employees, whom we consider to be very important to the future success of the business, into the Getinge Group."

Julian Schild, Huntleigh´s Chairman of the Board, agrees: "We are convinced that both our customers and employees will benefit from the merging of both companies. We welcome Getinge´s positive opinion that Huntleigh´s management and employees will play an important role in the future success of the merged group."

Further information:

The full Getinge press release on the offer

Getinge financial reports

Huntleigh's UK Rule 25 announcement (PDF file)

Huntleigh's interim results for 2006 (PDF file)

To top