The british Smiths think merge its healthcare division with UCF

(Reuters) – The group of british engineering Smiths Group (LON:SMIN) has the status of preliminary discussions with a view to a merger of its medical division with the american ICU Medical.

It is not certain that these negotiations produce an agreement, has underlined Smiths Group in a press release published on Sunday, without specifying the financial terms of a possible transaction.

Smiths Medical, which provides medical equipment to health professionals, is the main division of the group of british engineering.

Penalized by delays in the launch of new products, the turnover of this division declined by 5% over the six months to 31 January, to 451 million pounds (513 million euros).

In the course of the semester, the taxable profit of the group declined 12 per cent to 217 million pounds on a turnover down 4.3% to 1.55 billion pounds.

ICU Medical, who has not responded in the immediate future to a request for comments, published this month a net income of $ 4.9 million (4.18 million euros) for a turnover of $ 372 million in the first quarter.

(Ben Martin in London and Kanishka Singh in Bangalore; Claude Chendjou for the French service, edited by Bertrand Boucey) OLFRBUS Reuters France Online Report Business News 20180528T065554+0000