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U.K.'s Spirent in U.S. buy
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November 16, 2000: 6:12 a.m. ET
Telecom technology firm to pay $1.58B for Hekimian unit of Axel Johnson
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LONDON (CNNfn) - U.K. telecom technology provider Spirent PLC agreed Thursday to pay $1.58 billion in cash and shares for U.S.-based Hekimian Laboratories Inc., a unit of Sweden's Axel Johnson AB, and said it might seek to list its high-flying shares on the Nasdaq growth-stock market.
Spirent, which recently joined London's benchmark index the FTSE 100, will pay the Swedish food wholesaler and retailer $712 million in cash and $863 million in new Spirent shares for the Rockville, Md.-based business, which provides quality monitoring services for telecom networks.
 Spirent (SPT) shares were up 3.9 percent, or 23.5 pence, to 630 pence in early London trade, giving it a market value of £3.9 billion ($5.6 billion). The shares earlier fell 11 percent to 531 pence.
Chief Executive Nicholas Brookes said the purchase would enhance Spirent's earnings and generate cash in the first year after completion of the deal.
Nasdaq listing mulled
Brookes told reporters in a conference call that the company was also considering listing in the United States next year, possibly on Nasdaq.
Accepting Spirent stock for part of the sale price will make Axel Johnson the U.K. company's largest shareholder, with approximately 12 percent. Axel Johnson chief executive officer Göran Ennerfelt will join the Spirent board.
Hekimian earned pre-tax profit of $36.3 million in the first eight months of 2000 on revenue of $129.4 million. The business counts among its clients SBC Communications Inc. (SBC: Research, Estimates), U.S. local telephone firm Verizon Comunications (VZ: Research, Estimates), Sprint Corp. (FON: Research, Estimates) and Concert -- the joint venture between AT&T Corp. (T: Research, Estimates) and British Telecommunications PLC (BT-A).
Brookes said Jekimian's activities were a good match with Spirent's current business of providing telecommunications test equipment. Spirent, based in southern England at Crawley, West Sussex, was formerly known as Bowthorpe.
"There is no overlap. The exceptional strategic fit of Spirent and Hekimian will enable us to provide leading-edge product and service assurance right across networks," he said.
Brookes said the company would have a strong presence in North America, and would now turn its sights to Europe and Asia.
--from staff and wire reports 
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