What would appear to be an obscure initial public offering from LVB Acquisition Inc. is much more important than it might seem. This is actually the old medical devices company Biomet, and its name will be changing back to Biomet. The company has filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission to sell up to $100 million in common stock. Biomet used to trade under the ticker BMET, and that will again be the case.
What investors need to know about this is that it is what we consider a re-IPO. Biomet was taken private for more than $11 billion in a private equity transaction back in 2007. The company is majority owned by affiliates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX), Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (NYSE: KKR) and also TPG Capital. Again, the owner is technically LVB and that will undergo a change — but this is Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, KKR and TPG. They own 97.04% of the company.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Barclays and Morgan Stanley were named as the lead underwriters. Be advised that this $100 million noted is merely for filing purposes. That figure is likely to be far higher as the deal comes closer to the market.
If you go back to the buyout, the $11.4 billion paid was actually raised from an original offering price of $10.9 billion. Still, Biomet posted an 8% revenue gain in 2013 to more than $3 billion.
Biomet’s medical products include dental implants, artificial hips, blood systems and much more. The company did not escape the financial crisis that hit shortly after it went private. Biomet is also among a handful of large companies that were taken private during the private equity boom and have not come public or been resold yet.
24/7 Wall St. did not include Biomet among the 10 most important IPOs to watch in 2014, but that was because it was unknown that the private equity group was going to exit the position. This would easily rank among the top 10 IPOs to watch in 2014.
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