A consortium of private equity groups has entered into an agreement to buy a majority state in medical supply group Medline. According to people familiar with the development, the deal is roughly valued at around 34 billion. This will be including debt and is being considered as one of the largest buyouts of the year. The consortium includes names like Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman. The transaction was announced by Medline, the largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies in the United States. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of this year and is subject to regulatory approvals. Even after the deal, Medline will continue to be a privately held, family-led company. The Mills family will remain the largest single shareholder of the company and will continue to led the American healthcare company.
This is also going to be one of the largest buyout deals that involve a club of private equity investors since the financial crisis of 2007. It is also the second largest-ever private equity deal with the first being buyout of US energy group TXU Corporation for USD 44 billion in 2007. Blackstone has beaten other consortiums of buyout groups including the one led by Brookfield and other involving CVC and Bain Capital. So-called club deals were in trend in the years after the financial crisis. This is because of the reason that it gave private equity groups an opportunity to get open for larger transactions. They almost disappeared all of sudden after the financial crisis as credit dried up. But these transactions have once again gained traction. In 2018, Blackstone joined hands with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore state fund GIC to pull together USD 17.3 billion for its largest deal since the crisis and agreed to buy a controlling stake in the data business and financial terminals of Thomson Reuters.
Founded in the year 1966 by Jim and John Mills, the healthcare company remains one of the largest manufacturers of medical supplies. The company is currently being run under the leadership of Charles Mills. His cousin Andy is the president of the company. They took reins of Medline in 1997 from their respective fathers. Medline said that the entire senior management team of the company will remain intact. The company plans to use new resources to expand its offerings. It will also focus on new infrastructure investments to strengthen its position in the international market.
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