Merck Sells Stake in Orthopedics Firm for $300 Million

In order to focus more on the company's core businesses, Merck KgaA (Darmstadt, Germany; www.merck.de) has announced it will sell its 50% share in the European orthopedics joint venture BioMer C.V. to its venture partner, Biomet, Inc. (Warsaw, IN, USA), for U.S.$300 million.

BioMer C.V. is the holding company of Biomet-Merck, the joint business of Biomet and Merck. The venture is represented in 17 European countries and had sales of $313 million in the fiscal year ended April 30, 2003. As a 50-50 venture, Merck did not consolidate sales of Biomet-Merck and was not involved in the day-to-day management of the business. Thus, there should be no changes for customers and employees when Biomet assumes full ownership.

"In more than five years of successful collaboration, Biomet has always been a professional and competent partner,” said Prof. Bernhard Scheuble, chairman of the executive board of Merck KgaA. "We finally accepted this offer as an opportunity to move forward with our goal to focus on our own core businesses.”





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