CareFusion (NYSE:CFN) set Jan. 21, 2015, as the date for a shareholder meeting on its pending, $12.2 billion merger with Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX).
The deal, announced in early October, calls for each share of CFN stock to bring $49 in cash and 77.7% of a share of BDX stock, equating to roughly $10.1 billion in cash and about $21 billion in stock.
Last week BD priced a $6.2 billion bond offering to help fund the cash portion of the deal. The deal passed anti-trust hurdles in the U.S. last month.
CareFusion said the timing of the shareholders meeting won’t precede anti-trust clearance in the European Union, meaning the deal won’t close before February 2015.
"While we are on track to complete the merger in the first half of 2015, we will not have received EU antitrust approval prior to the shareholder vote on Jan. 21. Based on our projected filing date for the formal notification in the EU, the close of the acquisition – and ‘Day One’ – will likely not occur until some time in February 2015 at the earliest," the company said in a regulatory filing [emphasis theirs].
