Vickers agrees sale of medical businesses

Vickers agrees sale of medical businesses

Vickers, the Challenger tanks to Rolls-Royce cars group, last night agreed to sell its troubled medical businesses to the US holding company Hillenbrand Industries. The cash raised is expected to fund an approach by Vickers to buy GKN's armoured vehicle division for some pounds 50m to pounds 100m. There are three businesses in the medical division, the biggest of which is the Pennsylviania-based Air-Shield, one of the world'sleading suppliers of baby incubators, which Hillenbrand intends to add on to its subsidiary Hill-Rom, a supplier of patient care systems and specialised therapy products. The other businesses are Medelec, a UK-based company specialising in brain scanning equipment, its New York-based sister company, TECA Corporation, and Medical Industrial Equipment, which manufactures electronic anaesthetic equipment.