Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Covidien (NYSE:COV) said yesterday that their pending, $43 billion merger is slated to close in early 2015.
The companies said the timeline is based on their need to finalize the joint proxy statement and prospectus, win approval from regulators and shareholders and then win the favor of the Irish High Court. Covidien’s corporate domicile is Ireland, although the company is run from its Mansfield, Mass., headquarters.
Medtronic and Covidien announced the deal last June, saying they expected to close the inversion deal in late 2014 or early 2015. Since the announcement, the U.S. Treasury instituted new rules governing inversions, in which a U.S. company acquires a foreign entity and reincorporates in that jurisdiction, prompting Medtronic to alter its financing for the deal.
The Fridley, Minn.-based company had planned to use some $13.5 billion in overseas cash to help pay the freight, but now plans to take out about $16 billion in debt to satisfy the new Treasury regulations.
For its part, Covidien has said it expects to divest some of its vascular therapies business to satisfy anti-trust regulators.