Siemens Healthineers’ $16.4 billion purchase of Varian Medical Systems is likely to get conditional clearance from EU antitrust regulators, Reuters has learnt.
The clearance comes after Siemens Healthineers last month offered concessions to address competition concerns regarding interoperability, according to the report. The European Commission is scheduled to decide on the deal by Feb. 19.
Varian (VAR) announced the $16.4 billion takeover by Siemens in August last year. According to the terms of the agreement, Siemens Healthineers offered to pay $177.50 per share in cash for all outstanding shares of Varian. This represented a 42% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average closing price of Varian’s shares as on July 31, 2020.
The acquisition seeks to create a multi-disciplinary healthcare company with a comprehensive cancer care portfolio. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year. In October last year, Varian shareholders had also approved the transaction.
Varian is a developer of oncology care technologies and solutions while Siemens Healthineers is a medical technology company whose portfolio includes imaging and diagnostic systems and advanced therapy systems including angiography systems and computed tomography (CT) systems. (See Varian Medical Systems stock analysis on TipRanks)
Late last month, Barrington Research analyst Michael Petusky reiterated a Sell on Varian stock.
Petusky commented on the acquisition, “…these two businesses appear highly complementary and will establish an integrated platform of end-to-end oncology solutions from front-end screening and diagnosis to the delivery of care and post-treatment survivorship. It is worth mentioning that Varian will continue to operate under the Varian brand name given its strength in the marketplace it serves.”
The rest of the Street is cautiously bearish about the stock with a Moderate Sell consensus rating. That’s based on 2 analysts recommending a Hold and 1 analyst suggesting a Sell. The average analyst price target of $178 implies 1.07% upside potential to current levels.
Related News:
Nissan Denies Talks With Apple Over Autonomous Car Venture – Report
Google Clinches Content Licensing Deal With Australia’s Seven West
Microsoft Showed Interest In Pinterest Takeover – Report
