A Medical Device Daily
Lithotripsy specialistHealthTronics (Austin, Texas) said it has agreed to sell its Specialty Vehicles division for $140 million to specialty truck and truck body manufacturer Oshkosh Truck (Oshkosh, Wisconsin), a maker of heavy-duty and emergency vehicles, in an all-cash transaction, the amount not disclosed.
Sam Humphries, HealthTronics' president/CEO, called the spin-off “integral to our development as a pure healthcare services and medical technology provider. The sale substantially improves our liquidity and leverage capacity, which enables us to pursue strategic opportunities that will enhance our focused growth objectives.”
Humphries added, “We believe our scale as the largest lithotripsy service provider in the USA allows us to continually drive improved efficiencies for our physician partnerships. While we intend to continue to make strategic acquisitions in our core business, the access to the capital markets created as a result of this transaction broadens our range of opportunities to pursue new medical technologies that complement our long-term strategic vision.”
Oshkosh Truck said the acquisition diversifies its business into complementary markets and offers opportunities for technology sharing with other Oshkosh subsidiaries.
The sale, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in July.
HealthTronics provides healthcare services primarily to the urology community, and manufactures, services and distributes medical products.
Robert W. Baird & Co. managed the sales process for HealthTronics.
In other dealmaking activity:
• McKesson (San Francisco) reported completing the sale of its automated prescriptions systems business to Parata Systems (Durham, North Carolina). Additionally, the companies entered into a long-term alliance in which McKesson will become sole third-party distributor for all Parata products in North America and a “significant” minority investor in Parata.
McKesson High Volume Solutions and McKesson Pharmacy Systems were excluded from the transaction. McKesson did not disclose terms of the deal.
McKesson is a healthcare services and information tech firm. Parata, founded in 2001, has developed the automated Robotic Dispensing System (RDS), its flagship product, which counts 30 tablets/second to process up to 154 prescriptions an hour.
• The Medical Solutions Group of Siemens (Erlangen, Germany/Malvern, Pennsylvania) reported that it has received clearance from the German Federal Cartel Office to proceed with the proposed $1.86 billion acquisition of Diagnostic Products Corporation (DPC; Los Angeles).
As reported, the boards of the companies have approved the agreement, and DPC shareholders, of record at the close of business on June 19, will vote on the merger at a special meeting July 27. The transaction is subject to other closing conditions.
DPC is a developer of in vitro diagnostics.
• BioMed Realty Trust (San Diego) reported closing the purchase of a fully-leased office and laboratory facility in the San Francisco Bay Area and also entering into agreements to acquire life science campuses in Boulder and Longmont, Colorado, from Array BioPharma (Boulder).
The San Francisco-area property is in Fremont, California, in proximity to other BioMed properties. The company purchased an 87.5% interest in the property for about $14.5 million. The property contains 72,500 rentable square feet of office and laboratory space, fully leased to Baxter Biosciences, a division of Baxter International (Deerfield, Illinois).
The company agreed to acquire Array BioPharma's 150,000 square-foot, four-building life science campus in Boulder for around $45 million. BioMed also entered into an agreement to acquire an additional Array BioPharma facility in Longmont for about $20.8 million. The Longmont property consists of two buildings totaling around 78,000 square feet of office and lab space.
Acquisitions of the Boulder and Longmont properties are expected to close in 3Q06, subject to customary closing conditions, BioMed said.
BioMed is focused on providing real estate to the life science Industry with a portfolio consisting of 47 properties, representing 71 buildings in every major U.S. life science market. Array Biopharma is a developer of small-molecule drugs.