* Deal for $41,50 per share, a premium 22 pct
* To be financed with a loan of $ $4,5 billion acquisition
* Scheduled to close in 2012 third fiscal quarter
By Greg Roumeliotis
NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters)-German industrial gases producer Linde AG said Sunday it has agreed to pay $4,60 billion to Lincare Holdings Inc., a Florida-based provider of oxygen and respiratory therapy services to patients at home.
The deal is the latest sign of raids that industrial gas suppliers are doing homecare sector, which is growing 6 to 9 percent a year, driven primarily by cost cuts at hospital operators and an aging population.
In his annual report 2011, Lincare, which serves more than 800,000 customers in the United States and in Canada, estimates that the total u.s. home respiratory market represented about $ 6 billion in annual revenue.
This appeal to Linde, who said in a statement on Sunday that it had signed a merger agreement with Lincare based on a cash offer of $41,50 per share, a premium of 22 percent, as shares ended trading at Lincare $ 34.02 on Friday.
Linde added that want to finance the deal with available cash and a loan of $ 4.50 billion acquisition that will be refinanced by issuance of debt and equity. It expects the deal to close in the third quarter of fiscal 2012.
In January, Linde bought the European homecare business rival U.S. Air Products and Chemicals Inc. for $ 750 million.
Linde, who is also the producer of industrial gases World No. 2, saw sales increase of homecare 6 percent in 2011 to 300 million euros ($ 379 million). Lincare posted net revenues for 2011 of $1,850 billion, an increase of 10.7% year-over-year.
Linde's chief executive Wolfgang Reitzle told reporters in May the company could make more acquisitions in the healthcare sector and that any agreement would be manageable in size.
The principal clients of Linde are in the fields of steel and chemicals, but also provides the gas used to produce solar cells, make LCD flat screens and lift the giant helium character balloons in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's in United States.
