Smith & Nephew (FTSE:SN, NYSE:SNN) isn’t in a big rush to jump on the mega-merger bandwagon, CEO Olivier Bohuon said today.
Despite a welter of recent blockbuster merger deals, Bohuon said the British medical device giant isn’t feeling any pressure from shareholders to seek a buyer.
"We have been a significant target for the last 10 years," Bohuon said during a conference call discussing Smith & Nephew’s 2nd-quarter results.
"Are we going to remain independent? It is not up to me to tell you that – I don’t have the answer. But I believe we have a good future, we have great growth in front of us, we have a number of new programmes and I believe success is here," Bohuon told analysts this morning.
Smith & Nephew has been an on-and-off M&A target since at least 1968, when Unilever broached a merger, Reuters reported. Bohuon said that the recent inversion deal spree by U.S. companies is likely to go on.
"Inversion is legal and I think U.S. companies will continue to play that," he said.
Smith & Nephew reported profits of $89 million, or 10¢ per share, on sales of $1.15 billion for the 3 months ended June 30, for a top-line slide of -31.0% on sales growth of 6.8%. Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per SNN share were $1.02, 6¢ ahead of expectations on Wall Street. Earnings per SN share were 20.4¢, a penny ahead of expectations in The City.
