GE to buy UK life science firm Whatman

LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co has agreed to buy British laboratory equipment maker Whatman Plc for 363 million pounds ($718 million), to boost its life sciences business.

The two companies said on Monday the acquisition was worth 270 pence cash per Whatman share and was expected to close in the second quarter of 2008.

GE officials said Whatman's filtration products for laboratory, research, life sciences and medical technology applications were highly complementary to GE's offerings.

"Life sciences is really a key area of growth for GE Healthcare," said Peter Ehrenheim, president and chief executive of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, on a conference call with journalists. "This acquisition builds on our growth strategy and it will provide us with additional innovative and complementary technologies."

Shares in Whatman, which first said on January 15 that it was in takeover talks, were 9.7 percent higher at 265.5p by 1510

GMT.

GE Healthcare, which has its headquarters in Britain, last year generated $3 billion in profit on $17 billion in revenue, with the life sciences unit accounting for $2.3 billion of the revenue total.

Whatman generates annual revenue of about $230 million, with an operating profit margin of 20 percent, Ehrenheim said. About 40 percent of Whatman's sales come from North America, 40 percent from Europe and 20 percent from the rest of the world, added Kieran Murphy, Whatman's CEO.

Ehrenheim said GE, the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, would run Whatman as a stand-alone entity and that Murphy would remain at its helm.