GE to acquire Amersham

Following days of FTSE speculation, General Electric has announced that it is to acquire Amersham Biosciences for £5.7bn ($9.5bn).

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, values Amersham shares at 800p each, a 45% premium on October 7 closing price of 552p a share, the day before Amersham indicated it had been approached by an undisclosed company.

Upon completion of the deal, Sir William Castell, currently ceo of Amersham,will become a vice chairman and member of the board of directors of General Electric and, as ceo, will have financial and leadership responsibility for GE Healthcare Technologies, the combined Amersham and GE Medical businesses.

Castell will also lead the integration process to deliver the expected operating synergies. Joseph Hogan, Senior Vice President of General Electric, will continue to lead the GE Medical business. The GE Healthcare Technologies business will be based in the UK.

The acquisition of Amersham, a global leader in diagnostic imaging agents and in life sciences, significantly advances General Electric's strategy of addressing high-growth, high-technology segments of the global healthcare industry. Amersham's imaging agents and biosciences businesses will add new, high-technology platforms to GE Medical's diagnostic imaging, healthcare services and information technology businesses, positioning GE Medical to participate in new developments in molecular imaging and personalised medicine.

Commenting on the acquisition, Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman of the board and chief executive of General Electric, said: 'GE and Amersham will be an exciting combination of talents, businesses and technologies. Amersham's diagnostic pharmaceutical and life sciences business will add new, high growth platforms to GE Medical's diagnostic imaging, services and healthcare information technology businesses. The combination of this technological and market knowledge will allow GE to accelerate the development of molecular imaging and personalised medicine where it will be possible to predict and treat disease with therapies tailored to the individual.

Sir William Castell, chief executive of Amersham, said: 'Combined with the complementary capabilities of General Electric this transaction enables us to accelerate the realisation of our vision of personalised medicine. We will have the competencies, the marketing reach and the financial resources to bring disease prediction, diagnosis and personalised treatment into the mainstream of medical practice.'