US: Gov sues to block merger of Steris-Synergy Health

The US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit on Friday aimed at stopping the $1.9 billion merger of medical technology provider Steris Corp and British sterilization services provider Synergy Health, according to the agency, which enforces antitrust law.

Synergy Health and Steris, both of which provide contract sterilization services using radiation for medical devices, said they would fight the FTC and that they were confident they would prevail.

“We are very disappointed by the FTC’s decision to impede this transaction and intend to vigorously challenge their claims in court,” Synergy Health Chief Executive Richard Steeves said in a statement.

The FTC said that the deal would hurt Synergy’s and Steris’ customers by eliminating “likely future competition between Steris’s gamma sterilization facilities and Synergy’s planned x-ray sterilization facilities in the United States.”

This deal is one of several inversion deals in which US companies seek to reincorporate overseas to get lower tax rates.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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