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Sulzer shareholders vote to spin off Medica

Shareholders in Sulzer, now facing a hostile takeover bid, have approved the spin-off of its 74 per cent stake in medical devices' company, Sulzer Medica.

Shares in the group were also suspended at the start of trading on the Swiss bourse while the group’s annual general meeting takes place in Winterthur.

Shareholders there are set to decide on the 167-year-old company’s fate, voting to either support current management or cast their lot with Rene Braginsky’s InCentive Capital group, which has mounted the hostile bid.

Both Sulzer’s current management and InCentive had planned to spin off Sulzer’s core industrial business from its stake in Sulzer Medica.

The InCentive offer values Sulzer’s core business, which includes surface technology, turbomachinery, pumps and thermal fuel cells, at SFr1.6 billion.

However, Sulzer says that Braginsky’s offer is still too low.

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