Becton, Dickinson To Buy CareFusion For $12.2 Bln

(RTTNews) - Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BDX) Sunday said it agreed to buy medical devices maker CareFusion Corp. (CFN) for $12.2 billion in a cash-and-stock deal.

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based Becton, Dickinson agreed to pay CareFusion shareholders $49.00 in cash and 0.0777 of its share for each CareFusion share held, or a total of $58.00 per CareFusion share. The deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies.

The acquisition, which is expected to close in first half of 2015, now requires regulatory and CareFusion shareholder approvals. Upon closing, Becton, Dickinson shareholders will own about 92 percent of the combined company and CareFusion shareholders will own around 8 percent.

Becton, Dickinson CEO Vincent Forlenza said, "It accelerates BD's transition from a product-focused company to a customer-centric provider of innovative healthcare solutions with leading scale across the medication management value chain and expanded solutions for patient safety."

The acquisition is expected to provide double-digit cash earnings accretion to Becton, Dickinson in the first full year, and is also expected to be accretive to GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2018.

Becton, Dickinson said it has secured $9.1 billion of debt from Goldman Sachs and expects to put in place permanent financing in the form of available cash and unsecured notes.

Becton, Dickinson reaffirmed its full year 2014 adjusted earnings from continuing operations guidance of between $6.22 to $6.25 per share. Analysts currently estimates earnings of $6.25 per share for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

CareFusion also backed fiscal year 2015 financial guidance of 5 to 7 percent revenue growth and adjusted earnings of $2.60 to $2.75. Analysts currently estimates earnings of $2.68 per share with revenue growth of 6.10 percent.

BDX closed Friday's regular trading at $115.84, up $1.72 or 1.51%, on the NYSE.

CFN closed Friday's regular trading at $46.17, up $0.83 or 1.83%, on the NYSE.