Wound care and regenerative medicine company Acelity yesterday said it expects to raise as much as $1 billion in its forthcoming initial public offering as it looks for a way to pay down its debt.
Acelity, formerly Kinetic Concepts Inc., was acquired for $6.1 billion by Apax Partners and a pair of Canadian pension funds in a leveraged buyout in November 2011. The company, which makes wound care products, later folded KCI sister company LifeCell and acquisition Systagenix into the Acelity brand.
Rumors 1st surfaced in June that Acelity’s private equity owners were looking look to pay down debt; the company was leveraged at 6.74x as of June 30 and has said it plans to use the IPO proceeds to redeem some of the $609.6 million it has in 12.5% senior notes, which come due in 2019. Acelity had more than $1.73 billion in 10.5% 2nd-lien senior secured notes, due 2018, and total debt of $4.84 billion as of June 30. Acelity registered the IPO in August.
San Antonio-based Acelity reported sales growth of 7.7%, to $1.866 billion, for 2014 and pared its losses by 58.7%, to -$230.4 million, compared with 2013. For the 6 months ended June 30, sales grew 4.3% to $353.2 million, with losses cut 88.9% to $22.2 million, compared with the 1st half of 2014.
Acelity plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange but has not revealed a stock symbol.
Material from Reuters was used in this report.
