Medica(SMENn.S)to up stake in Tutogen shareholder
WINTERTHUR, Switzerland, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Sulzer Medica said on Monday it wanted to raise its stake in Capital Partners II Ltd Liquidating Trust, majority owner in Tutogen Medical Inc (TTG.A), in a $30 million deal to boost ties with Tutogen.
Medica spokesman Henner Alms said the move fitted in with its plans to expand its spinal fusion product portfolio, for which it needed to secure long-term stocks of bone tissue from a limited range of suppliers such as U.S.-based Tutogen.
Through the offer, Medica would gain control of a 25 percent stake in Tutogen, which comes on top of 10 percent already held directly by Medica. But there were no plans to make an offer for Tutogen itself, Alms added.
In terms of a transaction agreed with Capital Partners' board of trustees, Medica is offering to buy up to 50 percent, or 21,627 trust units at $1,387 each, in Capital Partners II Liquidating Trust in a tender for about $30 million.
If it obtained fewer than 8,651 units, or about 20 percent, it would have no obligation to complete the deal.
The offer is valid for at least 20 working days.
Tutogen, which had sales of $11.5 million in the 12 months to September 30, 1999, has a market capitalisation of about $63 million, which would translate into a market value of the 25 percent stake Medica is buying of $15.7 million.
Thomas Pauken, liquidating trustee at U.S.-based Capital Partners, said the price offered per unit represented a premium on the $1,000 per unit paid by the partners in the early 1990s when the partnership was set up.
He said he saw a "high chance of success" for Medica's offer.
Medica's Alms said the valuation of the units was related to Tutogen's share price, but gave no details. |
