Utah medical technology giant Merit Medical Systems Inc. has agreed to buy two product lines from Becton, Dickinson & Co., which operates under the trademark BD, for a reported cost of $100 million. BD proposed the sale of the assets in conjunction with its acquisition of C.R. Bard Inc. and Merit has agreed to the sale subject to BD closing the deal with Bard. The final sales price is subject to adjustment for fluctuations in the value of transferred inventory.
Founded in 1987, Merit is a manufacturer and marketer of proprietary disposable devices used in interventional, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, particularly in cardiology, radiology, oncology, critical care and endoscopy. The firm employs 4,700 in its development and manufacturing facilities worldwide along with a sales force of 290. It is based in South Jordan and has plants in Pearland, Texas; Richmond, Virginia; Malvern, Pennsylvania; Rockland, Massachusetts; San Jose, California; Maastricht and Venlo, The Netherlands; Paris, France; Galway, Ireland; Beijing, China; Tijuana, Mexico; Joinville, Brazil; Markham, Ontario, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; and Yishun, Singapore.
The assets to be acquired are soft tissue core needle biopsy products currently sold by BD under the trade names of Achieve Programmable Automatic Biopsy System, Temno Biopsy System and Tru-Cut Biopsy Needles. Additionally, Merit proposes to acquire the Aspira Pleural Effusion Drainage Kits and the Aspira Peritoneal Drainage System currently marketed by Bard.
Merit said it intends to finance the acquisition through borrowings that are currently available under its revolving credit facility. Merit’s management expects the acquisition to provide incremental annual revenues in the range of $42 million to $48 million.
“We believe this is a perfect fit for Merit,” said Merit’s chairman and CEO, Fred P. Lampropoulos. “These products are well established with an installed base and complement Merit’s CorVocet Full Core Biopsy System and our recently acquired bone biopsy products.
“There are also a number of markets in which Merit has direct representation that will be expanded to include the acquired products, as well as new markets which we plan to develop,” Lampropoulos said. “In summary, we believe this transaction will provide complementary high-margin products, increased use of our existing facilities, market expansion opportunities, accretive margins, profits and our existing sales force utilization.”