A Medical Device Daily

Chinese medical device maker Mindray Medical International (Shenzhen, China) has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $276 million in an initial public offering. Terms for the offering have not been set, and expected underwriters were not identified in the SEC filing.

Mindray is the largest manufacturer of patient monitoring products in China and reports having a growing presence outside China, primarily in various regions of Asia and Europe.

In its SEC filing, the company says it offers 40 products across three business segments: patient monitoring devices, diagnostic laboratory instruments and ultrasound imaging systems. It cites Frost & Sullivan as giving it the leading market share in China by units sold, and the second leading market share by revenue, for the sale of patient monitoring devices in 2003.

It says it believes it holds a leading share in China “in diagnostic laboratory instruments and grayscale ultrasound imaging systems. Due to our leading market position, we believe we have one of the most recognized brands in the medical device industry in China.”

It reports having 1,950 distributors and 500 direct sales and sales support personnel, and it sells its products internationally through more than 660 distributors and 75 sales and sales support personnel. It reports having sold products to about 25,000 hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities in China and more than 170,000 devices sold worldwide.

The company has applied for a New York Stock Exchange listing under the symbol MR.

In 2002, Mindray formed an alliance with Masimo (Irvine, California) to market Masimo's SET technology for pulse oximetry.

In other financing news:

• Alcoa (Hunenberg, Switzerland) reported that its board has approved the repurchase of up to another 5 million shares of the company's outstanding common stock. Including this and prior authorizations, the company now has authority to repurchase up to about 5.1 million shares. The share repurchase program is designed to reduce dilution caused by exercises of employee stock options. Alcon is a major eye care company with sales of $4.4 billion in 2005.

• LifePoint Hospitals (Brentwood, Tennessee) reported signing an amendment to its credit agreement, as of April 15, 2005, between LifePoint and a syndication of banks led by Citigroup Global Markets, as sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner. The parties have agreed to increase the aggregate amount available for revolving loans by $50 million to $350 million.

William Carpenter III, president/CEO of LifePoint, said, “We view the increase in the amount available under the credit agreement as a vote of confidence by our banking group in LifePoint's future and its operating strategy. The newly increased $350 million facility, along with cash from operations, will allow LifePoint to fund organic growth and provide general working capital requirements.”

LifePoint is a hospital company focused on providing healthcare services in non-urban communities. Of the company's 53 hospitals, 49 are in communities where LifePoint is the sole community hospital provider.

• QLT (Vancouver, British Columbia) reported the preliminary results of its modified Dutch Auction tender offer, which expired at 5 p.m., EDT, on Sept. 8. QLT said it expects to purchase for cancellation 13 million shares of its common stock at a price of $8 a share, for a total cost of $104 million. These shares represent about 14.7% of the shares outstanding as of Sept. 8.

Shareholders who deposited common shares to the tender offer will have about 96.5% of their common shares deposited purchased for cancellation. After the repurchase, about 75.2 million common shares will remain outstanding.

QLT and the depositary expect that the exact number of common shares to be taken up and paid for under the offer will be determined on or before Sept. 15.

Merrill Lynch & Co. and BMO Capital Markets served as dealer managers for the offer. Georgeson Shareholder Communications served as information agent and Computershare Investor Services served as the depositary.

QLT develops treatments for eye diseases as well as dermatological conditions.