Market pressure puts paid to Sulzer merger
The industrial group, Sulzer, is abandoning plans to merge with the medical group, Sulzer Medica, following pressure from investors.
Sulzer, which already owns 74 per cent of Sulzer Medica, announced the planned merger last month. The Winterthur-based company said the tie-up would eliminate a costly and complicated dual structure.
But Sulzer said it was now taking note of a lack of investor confidence in the proposals. It said it was now clear that the markets preferred the two companies to remain "pure players" in their respective fields.
However, Sulzer said it would continue its strategy of refocusing on surface and materials technology. Sulzer Medica is to concentrate on orthopaedics, dental care and cardiovascular prostheses.
The merger was to have cost around 300 jobs, 150 of them in Switzerland.
Under the proposals released in September, Sulzer also plans to sell off five technical divisions.
Sulzer had 1999 sales of SFr5.5 billion ($3 billion), while turnover for Sulzer Medica was SFr1.2 billion.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
Contributions under this article have been turned off. You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.