BRUSSELS: Zimmer Holdings Inc. secured approval in the European Union for its $13 billion acquisition of fellow orthopedic-device maker Biomet Inc. after agreeing to sell three businesses in Europe to assuage antitrust concerns.
Zimmer Holdings agreed in April last year to buy Biomet for about $13.4 billion, in a bid to position the combined company as a leader in making products to repair muscles and bones. Both companies are based in Warsaw, Ind.
The European Commission, the EU’s top antitrust authority, said Monday that the deal could go ahead provided Zimmer divest a knee-implant business in the European Economic Area, and Biomet sell an elbow-implant unit in the region, and a knee-implant business in Denmark and Sweden.
The companies agreed not to complete the merger until suitable purchasers are found and approved by the commission.
The asset sales will alleviate concerns that the deal could have led to higher prices for orthopedic implants in some European countries, the commission said in a statement.
The businesses must be sold “to one or several purchasers capable of running the businesses as a competitive force in the market,” it added.
EU regulators opened an in-depth probe into the planned deal in October, warning that it could result in less innovation and higher prices. They said the transaction may “substantially lessen competition in the markets for hip, knee, elbow and shoulder implants,” as well as for products such as bone cement.
The agreed divestments “will ensure that patients continue to benefit from sufficient choice and innovation and that health-care providers enjoy competitive prices,” the EU’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement.
The two companies had said in July that they expected the deal to close in the first quarter of 2015.
