A Medical Device Daily

Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners reported that following the closing of their $4.1 billion acquisition of ConvaTec (Skillman, New Jersey), a developer of wound therapeutics and ostomy care products, which is anticipated to occur in 3Q08, they intend to combine it with Unomedical (Copenhagen, Denmark), a manufacturer of single-use medical devices.

Nordic Capital Fund VII and Avista Capital Partners reported a definitive agreement to acquire ConvaTec from Bristol-Myers Squibb early last month (Medical Device Daily, May 6, 2008). Unomedical is currently owned by Nordic Capital Fund IV.

The combination of the two companies will create a global healthcare company with an expanded offering of products and product-related services for customers. The combined company will continue to be known as ConvaTec and be led by current ConvaTec CEO David Johnson.

The transaction will be subject to customary regulatory approvals, including merger control.

"As a stand-alone company, ConvaTec will embark on a plan of accelerated growth and innovation, and today's announcement of intent is the first step in that direction," Johnson said. "The future integration of Unomedical with ConvaTec will provide specific opportunities, particularly in specialty hospital devices, that we intend to maximize across our global markets."

ConvaTec had net sales of about 1745 million ($1.16 billion million) in 2007 and has about 3,500 employees.

Unomedical's revenues in 2007 were about DKK 2 billion ($423.16 million) and the company employs about 4,500.

In other dealmaking news:

• Medline Industries (Mundelein, Illinois) a privately held manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies, reported that it has acquired Chester Labs (Cincinnati), a manufacturer of liquid products for personal care, infection control and diagnostic use in medical facilities.

Chester Labs will continue to operate as an independent operating entity under the name Chester Packaging.

"This is a terrific situation for Chester Packaging and our customers," said John Armstrong, president of Chester Packaging. "Our new alignment with Medline provides us access to capital to accelerate what we think is a very exciting new product development agenda. It also allows us to upgrade the infrastructure of our company and improve the resources we can employ to serve our customers."

• IPC The Hospitalist Company (North Hollywood, California) reported that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Hospitalists of America (HOA; Coral Gables, Florida). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition will expand IPC's presence to southeast Florida with a network of independent physicians who perform hospitalist services on a part-time basis for HOA's health plan and hospital customers across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Subject to completion of due diligence and other customary closing conditions, the acquisition is scheduled to close in 3Q08.

IPC is a national physician group practice company focused on the delivery of hospitalist medicine services. The company's physicians and affiliated providers manage the care of hospitalized patients in coordination with primary care physicians and specialists.