CR Bard shares surge to all-time high on Becton takeover
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
US healthcare-equipment maker CR Bard is flying high a day after Becton Dickinson, the New Jersey-based medical technology company, struck a $24bn cash-and-shares takeover deal for the company.
The company’s shares hit an all-time intraday high of $305.66 before pulling back slightly to trade at $304.10 a share at pixel time, a 20 per cent increase from Friday’s close and on track for its highest closing price ever, according to Bloomberg data.
In the deal announced on Sunday, Becton offered $222.93 in cash and 0.5077 of its own shares in return for each Bard share, for a total value of $317 per share based on BD’s closing price on Friday.
Becton did not enjoy the same day-after bounce as its target, as it plans to borrow heavily to finance the deal, its second large acquisition in three years following its $12.2bn purchase of CareFusion in 2015. Becton shares were trading down 3.6 per cent by Monday afternoon, putting them on track for their biggest one-day drop since November.
Comments