SINGAPORE - Medtronic Inc, the world's largest independent medical device company by sales, will maintain fast and stable growth in China through mergers and acquisitions. The company will also double the number of local staff member within four years. Jean-Luc Butel, executive vice-president and group president of Medtronic International (the company's overseas unit), told China Daily that the Minnesota-based company will strengthen cooperation with Chinese players probably through a series of joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. "They don't necessarily have innovative technology. They have good technology, they have good distribution ... then we do want to cooperate with them," said Butel. The company invested more than $220 million to set up a joint venture with Shandong Weigao Group Medical Polymer Co Ltd in 2008, in which the US medical-device provider holds a 51 percent interest. That joint venture, Medtronic's first outside the United States,has helped the company to enrich its product portfolio, enhance market coverage and expand research and development (R&D) capabilities.
