UK-based industrial gas manufacturer BOC Group Plc, launched a 87 million tender offer for the remaining stake in its Japanese unit Osaka Sanso Kogyo Ltd. Serving two million customers in more than 50…
UK-based industrial gas manufacturer BOC Group Plc, launched a 87 million tender offer for the remaining stake in its Japanese unit Osaka Sanso Kogyo Ltd. Serving two million customers in more than 50 countries, The BOC Group is one of the largest and most global of the world“s great gases companies. It employs 43,000 people and had sales of more than 3.8 billion last financial year. The company already holds 55% of Osaka Sanso“s capital and will carry out the tender offer through its BOC Japan Ltd. unit. BOC plans to buy Osaka Sanso stock at a price of JPY 310 a share between 4 April and 26 April, Osaka Sanso said, and that a successful outcome of the tender offer would have a positive effect on group earnings. It added that the integration of Osaka Sanso into BOC“s global business is expected to improve Osaka“s competitive advantage in serving key customers in the Japanese market. For the year ended 30 September 2000 Osaka Sanso posted a pretax profit of 25.4 million on revenue of 318 million and is one of the major industrial gases companies in Japan, with some 700 employees.