Agfa-Gevaert, the parent company of Agfa HealthCare, has responded with a "thanks, but no thanks" to an unsolicited offer from Kanteron Systems this week to purchase the Belgium-based company.
Healthcare IT-biomedical informatics firm Kanteron Systems made its nonbinding proposal in a September 10 blog post that stated the offer is "at an early stage, therefore, there is no certainty as to whether, and under which conditions, Kanteron Systems may make a public tender offer to the shareholders of Agfa-Gevaert."
The proposal apparently came as a surprise to Agfa-Gevaert. Because it is a public company, Agfa-Gevaert first had to notify authorities in the Belgian stock exchange of Kanteron's rather unorthodox method of proposing the acquisition. That requirement delayed a public response to the offer, wrote Johan Jacobs, Agfa-Gevaert's corporate press relations manager, in an email to AuntMinnie.com.
In its public statement, Agfa-Gevaert confirmed receipt of Kanteron's nonbinding letter of intent to a "voluntary conditional leveraged takeover offer" for all Agfa-Gevaert shares. The company went on to say that the management "has decided not to engage in discussions with Kanteron Systems at this stage."
