Bausch + Lomb, a company that grew from a small optical shop in upstate New York to a global eye products business, is returning to the public market. The company has filed preliminary documents for an initial public offering in what could be one of the largest ever in healthcare.
This IPO application as expected. Bausch + Lomb’s parent company, Bausch Health Companies (BHC), announces its plans in 2020 get rid of The eye care business is an independent public company. In a filing with securities regulators on Thursday, Vaughan, Ontario-based Bausch + Lomb said it has applied to list on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker “BLCO.”
Bausch + Lomb is one of two spin-offs and IPOs that BHC is preparing for.In August last year, the company announced plans to Spin-off Solta Medical, its skincare business. The remaining BHC Pharma business will also be a separate public company. BHC Chairman and CEO Joe Papa said in a fireside chat Wednesday at the annual JP Morgan HealthCare conference that the next step will be to file a registration statement with the securities regulator. Bausch + Lomb was finally committed before Solta.
“We’re pretty much done in terms of planning and preparing to launch the Bausch + Lomb and Solta IPOs, which obviously will depend on market conditions and appropriate approvals,” Papa said. “But when market conditions are right for each of them, we’re positioned to move forward quickly with a Bausch + Lomb or Solta IPO.”
In the filing, Bausch & Lomb set a $100 million placeholder figure for the proposed stock offering. IPO research firm Renaissance Capital estimate The company’s return to the public markets could raise about $3 billion.according to Reuters researchIn 2014, Alibaba Group went public in the U.S. with a $25 billion IPO, the largest ever. Visa followed with $19.6 billion and General Motors followed with $18.1 billion.
The history of Bausch + Lomb dates back to 1853, when John Jacob Bausch opened an optical shop in Rochester, New York.According to the company’s Corporate history, Bausch’s friend Henry Lomb lent him $60 to keep the business going; as it grew, Lomb became a full partner. Starting with eyeglass frames, the company has been a pioneer in contact lenses. These products are now part of Bausch & Lomb’s Vision Care business, one of three operating divisions. The other two sections are medicine and surgery.according to a Introduction to BHC Investors, Bausch + Lomb has around 12,500 employees in 100 countries.
Bausch & Lomb traded on the New York Stock Exchange for nearly 50 years until its $4.5 billion acquisition in 2007 through Warburg Pincus and Wales, Carson, Anderson and Stowe. In 2013, Valeant Pharmaceuticals bought Bausch & Lomb from a private equity firm for $8.7 billion to become its eye care unit.Five years later, Valente use the name of its subsidiary, changing the company name to Bausch Health Companies.Valente is rebranding Its price has risen sharply after an accounting scandal and facing scrutiny for its drug-acquisition practices.
When Valeant acquired Bausch & Lomb, the eye-products company had annual revenue of nearly $1.3 billion. Revenue in 2020 was more than $3.3 billion, according to IPO filings. It was down 9.3% compared to last year, a change the company attributed to the impact of Covid-19. However, sales are recovering. For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, revenue was approximately $2.7 billion, up nearly 12% from the same period in 2020.
Bausch + Lomb will not receive any proceeds from its IPO. The funds raised will be donated to the BHC, documents show. Proceeds from the Bausch & Lomb and Solta IPOs will be used to pay down BHC’s debt, Papa said in a speech at JPMorgan.
Despite the separation of Bausch + Lomb from its parent company, the two entities will continue to be closely linked. The number of shares to be offered and pricing details have yet to be determined, but Bausch & Lomb said in the filing that it would be a so-called controlled company — with the majority of the shares to be owned by BHC after the IPO. Meanwhile, the rebranding will continue. Once the separation of Bausch + Lomb and Solta is complete, BHC said its remaining pharmaceutical business will take on the new name.
Photos by Flickr users Ken Tigardin through Creative Commons license
