LabCorp May Be Next Huge Private Equity Buyout

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) may soon be private if reports (or rumors) of a private equity buyout come true. There are now multiple reports that a private equity consortium is looking to take the company private in a multibillion club deal for the lab-testing company.

The club deal would be a leveraged buyout according to Mergermarket, which used the “sources familiar with the situation” context. The report put TPG Capital and Bain Capital as the main names out of the private equity firms interested in the company.

Before any boost from the private equity group, investors better pay attention to the fact that Yahoo! Finance had a market cap as of Tuesday’s close as being $8.24 billion, based upon a closing price of $84.09. Shares are up almost 14% at $95.50 in the premarket trading indications. That would create a new adjusted market capitalization rate of about $9.4 billion. LabCorp also has close to $2 billion in direct long-term debt as of its most recent balance sheet.

Keep in mind that LabCorp’s 52-week range is $74.57 to $95.30.

JON C. OGG