It’s been a busy year for mergers and acquisitions in the Medical Device sector. Through December 2, 108 transactions have been announced in 2016, compared with 113 in all of 2015. Target companies specializing in cardiovascular devices make up a small percentage of those deals, but tend to post large prices.
So far, $32.8 billion has been committed to three of the four transactions targeting cardiovascular products. The vast majority of that amount is the result of the $30.7 billion acquisition of St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ) by Abbott (NYSE: ABT), announced in April. As a result of that deal, Abbott and St. Jude agreed to sell certain vascular closure and electrophysiology assets to the Japanese cardio device maker, Terumo Corporation (OTCQB: TRUMF), for $1.2 billion.
The latest cardio deal to be announced is from Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE: TFX), which designs, develops, makes and distributes single-use medical devices for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The target is Vascular Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: VASC), which develops clinical solutions for minimally invasive coronary and peripheral vascular procedures.
Teleflex will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Vascular Solutions’ common stock for $56.00 per share, in cash, for a total of approximately $1 billion.
Vascular Solutions has more than 90 proprietary products and services that are sold to cardiologists, interventional radiologists, electrophysiologists and vein specialists through its direct U.S. sales force and international independent distributor network.
The combination is expected to meaningfully accelerate the growth of Teleflex’s vascular and interventional businesses through increased revenue associated with entry into the coronary and peripheral vascular market, as well as increased cross-portfolio sales opportunities.
That may justify the 6.3x revenue and 46.2x EBITDA multiples that result from trailing 12-month financials. We’ll see.