America’s competition watchdog has accused Britain’s Synergy Health of deliberately “killing” a plan to expand in the US in a bid to smooth the path for its $1.9 billion tie-up with Steris.
The Federal Trade Commission has also accused Synergy of concealing certain company documents after it realised that the watchdog was embarking on a more detailed investigation into the competitive effects of its merger.
Last October, Steris, of Ohio, offered to buy the Swindon-based Synergy for a mixture of cash and stock worth £24.30 a share, using a contentious “tax inversion” process to take advantage of Britain’s lower rates of corporation tax.
Synergy and Steris employ thousands of people in North America and Europe who sterilise tens of millions of surgical instruments annually for