WHATMAN, one of the county’s oldest businesses, is being sold for £363 million.

GE Healthcare, the UK-based subsidiary of American company General Electric, has agreed to buy the filtration and DNA technology specialist business with its headquarters in Maidstone.

The deal, recommended by Whatman bosses, offers shareholders 270p per share, valuing Whatman at around $713m (£363m) and close to yesterday's 265.5p share price.

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, but strong backing by Whatman bosses and Hermes Focus Asset Management, its largest stakeholder with a 15 per cent stake, makes it almost certain to go through before the summer.

The acquisition could lead to some job losses in office roles, possibly in Maidstone, but numbers are not yet known.

Whatman, founded in the 1740s at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, and once a world leader in quality "laid" papermaking, is a global supplier of filtration products and technologies, with a well-recognized brand, and a strong sector expertise.

With a major site at Springfield Mill, Maidstone, Whatman manufactures a wide range of filters and membranes for laboratory, research, life sciences and medical technology applications. Sales last year were around £116m.

GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business is a world-class provider of technologies for cellular and protein science research, and tools used in the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals such as vaccines, cell therapies and antibodies.

Kieran Murphy, Whatman’s chief executive officer, said, "Whatman will benefit significantly from the business process expertise within GE Healthcare and in addition, Whatman’s product opportunities within the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and forensics markets will have a greater chance of success within the larger GE Healthcare group.

"The Whatman management team very much looks forward to working with the GE Healthcare leadership to maximise the potential of this great business."

Whatman chairman Michael Harper, added: "The board of Whatman believes that it has delivered a very satisfactory outcome for Whatman shareholders, employees and customers.

Joe Hogan, GE Healthcare’s president and chief executive officer, said: "Whatman is a great company with an outstanding track record of innovation, a strong reputation and brand with the research community, and highly talented employees.

"Whatman’s product offerings are highly complementary with our Life Sciences business; we believe that combining the skills and knowledge of the two businesses will create significant added value for our customers.

"Life Sciences is a key area of growth for GE Healthcare and expanding our skill base and product offerings in this area supports our vision of helping our customers to diagnose and treat disease earlier."

Peter Ehrenheim, president and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, said: "We believe that combining the skills of the two companies will enable GE Healthcare to create strong added value for customers in biomedical and drug discovery research."