Hill-Rom Holdings (NYSE:HRC) closed a $400 million acquisition of Michigan-based Aspen Surgical Products, the companies announced yesterday.
The merger bolsters Hill-Rom’s footprint in surgical devices with Aspen’s safety scalpels and blades, fluid collection products, specialty needs and other operating room disposables and instruments.
"With the addition of Aspen Surgical, Hill-Rom is well positioned for growth and geographic expansion in our surgical business, particularly in the safety product segments," president & CEO John Greisch said in prepared remarks. "This acquisition further expands our global portfolio beyond our core franchise with a business that is immediately accretive to earnings per share and adds recurring revenue to our existing surgical platform."
Aspen has annual sales of about $120 million, and Hill-Rom expects the acquisition to add 2¢ to its bottom line for fiscal 2012, according to a press release.
That’s good news for Hill-Rom, which earlier this year announced plans to lay off about 3% of its workforce, roughly 200 employees, ahead of the 2.3% medical device tax.
Batesville, Ind.-based Hill-Rom also said it’s taking a $10 million to $13 million hit this year on tangible and intangible impairments, meaning a total charge of $19 million to $22 million for 2012.
HRC shares lost 17.7% in trading today, with shares going for $25.94 apiece after the company missed by a penny Wall Street’s Q3 expectations of 57¢ per share in earnings.
