British medical pioneer falls prey to US rival
A BRITISH company founded on technology breakthroughs from the Second World War is set to be snapped up by an American rival for £3.3bn. Healthcare firm BTG, which was formerly stateowned British Technology Group, has urged shareholders to back a cash offer from Boston Scientific which could see it absorbed by the middle of next year.
The company said it already had the support of BTG’s top three shareholders, Invesco, Novo and Neil Woodford’s investment vehicle, who hold a combined 37.2pc of the firm. Between them they stand to make more than £1.2bn from the deal. Shares jumped 34pc, or 209.5p, to 824.5p yesterday, but remained shy of Boston’s 840p per share offer.
If the takeover is approved, it would make BTG the latest pioneering UK company to fall prey to a foreign rival in recent years. others have included software giant ARM Holdings, payments firm Worldpay and travel website Skyscanner.
Analysts said BTG was also the eighth UK healthcare firm to be taken over in just 18 months. It has prompted concerns about an outflow of British-held intellectual property abroad. However, Dame Louise Makin, BTG’s boss since 2004, yesterday gave her backing to the takeover and said it would allow the firm to continue expanding its innovative interventionist medicines arm, which aims to cut the time patients spend in hospital.
Michael Mahoney, chairman and chief executive of Boston Scientific, said acquiring BTG’s interventional medicines arm would give his firm an edge in treatments for cancer and blocked blood vessels.
But Nico Macdonald, an expert on science and innovation at London South Bank university, said: ‘We have a world-beating healthcare industry in this country, so it is a cause for concern to see this level of takeovers.’
BTG was founded in 1948 as the National Research Development Corporation to commercialise technology breakthroughs made by the state during the Second World War.
It held rights to drugs and technology behind hovercrafts and MRI scanners.
The corporation was merged with the National Enterprise Board in 1981 and became British Technology Group, before it was privatised in 1992.