European Clearance for Zimmer/Biomet Deal

Zimmer Holdings, Inc. has announced the European Commission’s conditional clearance of its proposed acquisition of Biomet, Inc.

Background

It’s getting on for a year since we covered the news that Zimmer was to buy Biomet for thirteen billion “and change” dollars. The intervening period has seen the normal anti-trust procedures kicking in, with the upshot being that some divestiture was inevitable in order to gain clearance.

Unsurprisingly then, the EC’s clearance is conditional upon Zimmer entering into agreements with a suitable buyer to divest certain assets comprising the remedy package previously submitted to the EC. The company says it expects to enter into such agreements in the near term. As previously announced, the proposed transaction also received clearance from the Japan Fair Trade Commission.

The divestitures proposed as part of what’s called a “remedy package” include:

  • one unicompartmental knee brand
  • one elbow brand in the European Economic Area (“EEA”)
  • one total knee brand in two EEA countries.

The transaction remains subject to clearance by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, as well as other customary closing conditions. Once this is all put to bed, the transaction should complete before the end of April.

Source: Zimmer Holdings, Inc.

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