A Swedish med-tech company with operations in the cardiac surgery and vascular surgery markets has agreed to acquire Datascope (Montvale, New Jersey) for $865 million cash. Getinge (Stockholm, Sweden) said the $53-a-share offer price represents a premium of 33.6% to Datascope's volume weighted average price of $39.67 for the three-month period ended June 3, the day before Datascope's board said it was exploring "strategic options" for the company (Medical Device Daily, June 9, 2008).

Getinge said it wants to build its cardiovascular division into a "world leading business" focused on cardiac surgery, vascular intervention and cardiac assist. The company said the acquisition of Datascope, expected to close at the end of the year, is "an important step in this direction" and represents a strong addition to its product portfolio as well as its sales organization. Combined cardiovascular revenues will exceed $650 million, the company said during a presentation and investor teleconference Monday. Getinge also said during the presentation that Datascope has a "robust product pipeline with multiple near-term product launches."

Datascope, a 44-year-old company, has been quite active this year in terms of deal making. In March the company sold its patient monitoring business to Mindray Medical International (Shenzhen, China) for $202 million in cash (MDD, March 12, 2008). After that deal closed Datascope said several third parties that were considering making a bid for the company approached it. Then, just days after reporting it was considering strategic alternatives, including selling itself, Datascope said it would acquire the Sorin Group's (Milan, Italy) peripheral vascular stent business for an undisclosed sum. The company said that deal was the result of its experience as exclusive distributor of the Sorin peripheral stent product line in Europe, in which sales have grown rapidly since the product launch in January 2007 (MDD, June 12, 2008). Then, in August, Datascope sold its vascular closure business to St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) for about $24 million (MDD, Aug. 11, 2008).

Datascope's board has approved the deal with Gentinge and will recommend the offer to its shareholders, the company said. Datascope said that Lawrence Saper, its CEO/chairman and an 18% stockholder, has agreed to vote and tender his shares in connection with the deal.

"We are delighted that Datascope will be acquired by Getinge, a company that shares our commitment to serving the healthcare community. We believe that this transaction will deliver to our stockholders value at a historic high for our stock," Saper said.

In addition to product and geographic cross-selling opportunities, Datascope gives Getinge access to the interventional cardiology market which is expected to significantly support the launch of Getinge's new cardiac assist product, Cardiohelp, the company said.

Getinge said it would finance the deal using a fully underwritten credit facility from Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. Getinge said it intends to refinance part of the credit facility through a new share issue following the closing of the acquisition. The new share issue is expected to raise roughly SEK 1 billion and is being guaranteed by Carl Bennet, a company owned by Getinge's chairman and principal shareholder, Carl Bennet.

The acquisition is expected to contribute to Getinge's earnings per share, after acquisition related intangible amortization and financings costs, starting in 2010, the company noted.

Merrill Lynch International acted as financial advisor to Getinge and Lehman Brothers acted as financial advisor to Datascope. Alston & Bird and Dechert served as legal advisors to Getinge and Datascope, respectively.