London: Swiss healthcare firm Centerpulse has hired Brunswick for financial PR advice following a ?1.9 billion ($3.1 billion) hostile takeover bid from US firm Zimmer.
Zimmer made the unsolicited approach earlier this month, threatening to topple an approved ?1.6 billion ($2.6 billion) offer from UK-based healthcare giant Smith & Nephew (S&N).
Brunswick's hiring comes just one week after Zimmer appointed UK agency M Communications to lead PR efforts surrounding its take- over approach.
Brunswick is one of five financial PR agencies working on the deal, along with S&N's retained consultancy Financial Dynamics, and Zimmer's agencies Kekst & Co. in the US
and Hirzel Neef Schmid in Switzerland.
Centerpulse's PR campaign will be headed by Brunswick partner Simon Holberton from London, and senior partner Steve Lipin in New York.
Centerpulse is Europe's biggest provider of artificial orthopedic implants. The firm has been tipped for takeover since paying more than ?600 million ($989 million) to settle a class-action suit in the US involving thousands of patients claiming that they were given defective hip and knee joints.
