By Jonathan Spicer
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Becton Dickinson and Co will acquire C R Bard Inc in a $ 24 billion cash-and-stock deal that will give shareholders of the target about 15 percent of the combined entity, the two U.S. medical technology companies said on Sunday.
The companies said both boards of directors approved the “definitive agreement” which values Bard shares at $ 317.00 each. The shares closed trading Friday at $ 253.07, just shy of their record high closing price set on Thursday.
There was no early trading in shares of the two companies, according to futures market data on Sunday.
BD, based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, said it expects the acquisition of Bard, which is based in the same state and specializes on vascular, urology and oncology products, to boost non-U.S. growth options and to raise per-share earnings in fiscal year 2019. Some $ 300 million in “pre-tax run-rate cost synergies” are not expected until the following year.
For each Bard share, common shareholders will be entitled to about $ 222.93 in cash and 0.5077 shares of BD stock, the companies said.
Separately, BD named executive vice president Tom Polen as the company’s new president. Bard meanwhile reported its first quarter results early, saying on Sunday net income was $ 178.1 million, up 53 percent from a year earlier.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Mary Milliken and David Gregorio)
