Status Report: Respironics - Royal Philips

The FTC granted early termination of the (re-filed) HSR waiting period for the Respironics, Inc (RESP) - Royal Philips (PHG) deal on January 30.

The companies have disclosed the following regarding the EU review:

Royal Philips and the Company filed the formal notification and application for approval of the offer and the merger with the European Commission on January 30, 2008. Pursuant to the EC Merger Regulation, the member states of the European Union have 15 working days from receipt of a copy of the notification report to request that the European Commission refer jurisdiction to review a merger to their national competition authorities, which 15 working day period Philips expects to expire on or after February 20, 2008. In addition, the European Commission has until 11:59 p.m., Brussels time on March 5, 2008 to determine whether the merger would significantly impede effective competition in the common market or a substantial part of it.

These developments fall precisely in line with expectations as discussed previously. While the delay in the EU filing remains somewhat perplexing, there continues to be no reason to anticipate delays from the regulatory beyond the March 5 deadline. Nevertheless, the notification delay and subsequent review will naturallyl force PHG to extend the tender offer well into next month and perhaps even the first week of March 2008.

Disclosure: We have no positions of any kind, in any security. We are a completely neutral source of research and analysis.

Comments

[jh]

would be nice if you spelled the name of the company correctly.

It's "Respironics"...

[Isaac,Rotterdam,Holland]

Jh: would be nice if you took effort to comment on the content of the article as well -- or is that beyond your spelling capability?

I think it is well and factually written and documents an unusual and inefficient delay in shuffling papers within the EU for such an enormous and largest ever 5-billion+ takeover by PHG.

What do you think?
Isaac

PS I actually own and nightly use a Respironics CPAP, stopping my sleep-apnoea!