Medical Technology Company Greatbatch Eyes Lake Region Medical For $1.73 Billion

Medical Technology Company Greatbatch has set eyes on Lake Region Medical as its newest acquisition.

Greatbatch's purchase of the company previously called Accellent Inc amounted to $1.73 billion. Lake Region Medical, which generally provides research and development assistance and contract manufacturing to creators of medical device, would gain $478 million in cash and 5.1 million shares. Greatbatch would also assume the $1 billion debt of the company.

Reuters reported Greatbatch Chief Executive Thomas Hook disclosed that the agreement between the two companies will usher in the creation of one of the biggest device outsourcing firms for medical technology, but will have only about 10-12 percent share of the increasingly fragmented industry.

Greatbatch was founded in 1970 by Wilson Greatbatch, co-inventor of the rst rewarding implanted pacemaker, to prosper long-lived basic batteries to power the heart apparatuses.

Since then, the Frisco, Texas-based company has shifted into the military markets and energy.

Accellent was purchased in 2005 by Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which then bought Lake Region Medical last year, based in Minnesota and later on adopted the name of the latter.

Customers of both Lake Region Medical and Greatbatch includes Medtronic Plc, Johnson & Johnson and St. Jude Medical Inc, but provided to varied merchandise lines for each.

The joined company will cater to the vascular, cardiac, advanced surgical markets and orthopaedics, with operations in Latin America, United States, Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

As the healthcare commerce consolidates expeditiously, device and drug makers were increasingly searching to outsource production.

"This is a transformational opportunity we're going get right before we bulk up in terms of size", said Hook.

The merger would allow employment of around 9,000 individuals globally and would spawn an estimated $1.5 billion in revenues, as per Bloomberg.

According to Nasdaq, Greatbatch's stock has increased to almost a 5-month high and is now higher at 6.79 at $56.68.

Real Time Analytics