Agfa says no decision made to sell health business

The board of Belgium health IT giant Agfa-Gevaert yesterday issued a statement saying no decision has yet been taken to launch the sale of the HealthCare business group.

The statement, issued in response to reports in the Belgium press last week, that Agfa is about to launch a formal sales process for its HealthCare group, said: “In its regular meeting of today, September 9, 2008, the Board of directors has taken note of the confusion created by this misleading information and therefore has decided to set the record straight.”

The statement added: “The Board has decided that absolute priority must be given to customer satisfaction, to the development of the business and to operational improvement.

“The Board confirms that no decision has been taken to launch a process for the sale of the HealthCare business group.”

The statement concluded: “The board confirms its commitment to the preservation of the unity of the HealthCare business group, to its strategy and to the investments made for extending its leading position in healthcare IT.”

According to Reuters report last Friday Belgian daily De Standaard quoted Agfa chief executive Jo Cornu as saying a formal decision on the sale of the division had not yet been yet been taken.

In July of this year Agfa scrapped its plans to split into three separate companies – Agfa Graphics, Agfa Health Care and Agfa Materials.  At the time it said that it was still examining options, including allowing a third party to take a key shareholding in the healthcare division.