General M&A
June 6, 2021
5 minutes read

Deal: Medical Supplier Medline Sells To PE Firms For $30B

Medline, a family-owned medical products business, is getting bought out by a group of private equity firms in what marks…

Medline, a family-owned medical products business, is getting bought out by a group of private equity firms in what marks one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals since the 2008 financial crisis.

Medline has agreed to sell a majority stake in its business to a partnership formed by Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman. These are three private equity firms with hundreds of billions of assets under management between them.

Though the deal terms weren’t formally announced, reports peg it as valuing Medline around $30bn. Particularly, The Wall Street Journal pegs it as valuing Medline at $34bn including debt and $30bn excluding debt.

At the reported $30bn net value and with the private equity firms buying a majority stake, it implies they’re paying at least $15bn to the family that owns Medline, the Mills family.

A $30bn price isn’t out of range for a company that reported $17.5bn in revenue in 2020. Then at that price, it marks one of the biggest leveraged buyout deals since the 2008 financial crash that broadly led to investors shying away from big buyouts financed with debt.

After the buyout is completed, the Mills family will remain Medline’s largest single shareholder and continue to lead the company, while the private equity firms will split the majority stake (>50%) among themselves.

Along with the three private equity firms, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is also investing in Medline’s buyout.

Medline is a major manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products around the globe. An American company, it was instrumental in last year’s Covid pandemic for getting much-needed medical supplies to the US.