Shares digital

Life Sciences group Whatman (WHM) is to be bought out by GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (GE:NYSE), for £363 million. Whatman’s shareholders will receive 270p per share in cash through the deal. Chief executive, Kieran Murphy, who will be staying on at the company, says he is delighted about the deal, believing it will help Whatman capitalise on a rapidly expanding market and provide the group with additional resources.

Whatman is a global supplier of filtration products and technologies, and has a broad product range of filters and membranes which are expected to be highly complementary to GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business. Whatman’s shares were boosted 10% to 265.3p following the news, while shares in rival Optos (OPTS) were up a 12% to 142.5p. Other high risers in the sector were Synergy Healthcare (SYR:AIM), up 7%, and Clearstream Technologies (CTN:AIM), up 6%.

Shares says: The offer is almost double Whatman’s share price at the start of 2008, following a poor performance last year and is worth accepting.

ACCEPT THE BID

by: Rachel Robson