Cerberus eyes Talecris sale instead of IPO
By Julie MacIntosh in New York
Published: May 30 2008 23:49 | Last updated: May 30 2008 23:49
Talecris Biotherapeutics, the blood plasma products maker that Cerberus Capital filed to take public last year, may instead be sold, according to people familiar with the situation.
Cerberus and partner Ampersand Ventures bought Talecris, the former global blood plasma business of Bayer of Germany, in 2005 for $303.5m. Last July, Talecris filed plans for an initial public offering through which it expected to raise as much as $1bn. But with the market still cool for IPOs, and Cerberus looking to cash in on successful investments as it struggles with General Motors’ finance arm and others, it has been weighing a sale of Talecris.
People familiar with the situation say one potential buyer would be Australian pharmaceutical group CSL . CSL did not respond to requests for comment.
A sale of the company to CSL, or to another buyer, would boost Cerberus’s already-strong returns on Talecris and provide more certainty on its exit from the business. Cerberus owns a 74.3 per cent stake in Talecris, while Ampersand owns 25.7 per cent.
In December 2006, Cerberus and Ampersand extracted a $760m cash dividend out of Talecris after putting it through a $1.36bn recapitalisation. That came on top of their portion of a $73m dividend declared in 2005. Talecris had $1.13bn of total debt outstanding at March 31 2007.
Talecris makes and researches plasma-derived products that are used to treat patients with chronic disorders. Its primary markets are in the US, Canada and Europe.
CSL has a large human plasma products business with significant exposure in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The company also manufactures influenza vaccines and developed the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine, which it licenses to Merck. CSL announced in February that it would not buy back up to 4.5 per cent of its shares, as initially planned, in order to keep cash free for other investments.
North Carolina-based Talecris generated $264.1m of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation in 2006, the last full year before it filed its prospectus, on $1.1bn in revenue. Its top two products accounted for nearly three-quarters of its sales. Talecris’s revenue rose to $1.2 bn in 2007.
Consolidation in the plasma products sector has melded together a handful of companies that now lead the global market.
Talecris said last year that it and two of its rivals collectively controlled more than 82 per cent of the market’s US sales. |
