Medtronic in $6.1 B Deal with Cardinal Health, H&M March Sales Jumps

Sarla Buch
18 Apr, 2017
New York City

Daily Mail and General Trust agreed to sell its viral video sharing service. Hennes & Mauritz said sales in March jumped 6% on late Easter. Medtronic agreed to divest its monitoring and recovery products business for $6.1 billion. Weetabix agreed to be acquired by Post Holdings.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Daily Mail and General Trust agreed to sell its viral video sharing service. Hennes & Mauritz said sales in March jumped 6% on late Easter. Medtronic agreed to divest its monitoring and recovery products business for $6.1 billion. Weetabix agreed to be acquired by Post Holdings.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index declined 161.95 or 2.2% to 7,164.21 and in Frankfurt the DAX index dropped 65.04 or 0.5% to 12,043.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slumped 60.81 or 1.2% to 5,009.81.

Daily Mail and General Trust Plc slipped 1.5% to 705.50 pence after the U.K.-based media and publishing company agreed to sell its viral video-sharing website Elite Daily to Bustle Digital Group for an undisclosed financial terms.

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB fell 0.5% to 217.50 Swedish kronor after the Sweden-based clothing and accessories retailer said sales in March jumped 6% from 1% decrease in February and 8% decline in the same month a year ago.

Medtronic Plc, the Ireland-based privately held medical technology and services provider agreed to divest its patient care, deep vein thrombosis, and nutritional insufficiency business to the U.S.-based rival Cardinal Health Inc for about $6.1 billion in cash.

Medtronic plans to allocate $1 billion of after-tax proceeds for incremental share repurchases in fiscal 2018 and balance will be used to reduce the debt.

The transaction is expected to close in Medtronic''s second-quarter of its fiscal year 2018.

Weetabix Limited, the privately held the U.K.-based flakes and muesli maker agreed to be acquired by the U.S.-based cereal maker Post Holdings Inc for more than £1.4 billion or $1.76 billion from China-based Bright Food Group.

In January, the Chinese owner Bright Food had put up for sale its Britain''s second-largest ready-to-eat cereal maker Weetabix, including Alpen, Barbara''s brands, Honey Bunches of Oats and Grape-Nuts.

The state-owned Bright Food bought 60% stake of Weetabix from the private equity firm Lion Capital in 2012 for about £1.2 billion.