Franklin Lakes-based BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.) and Edwards Lifesciences on Monday announced that BD will acquire Edwards’ Critical Care product group for $4.2 billion in cash.
Edwards’ Critical Care unit develops and sells advanced blood and heart monitoring systems that are used in surgical and intensive care settings. Critical Care invented the hemodynamic monitoring category, and its solutions are currently used in more than 10,000 hospitals globally to better understand the cardiovascular condition in real time for critically ill patients, which helps improve outcomes.
According to a news release, Critical Care will operate as a separate business unit within Becton’s medical segment and will be led by Katie Szyman, current vice president of the unit at Edwards.
Critical Care has approximately 4,500 employees, with most based in Irvine, California. In 2023, the business generated more than $900 million in revenue.
BD expects to fund the all-cash transaction with approximately $1 billion of cash and $3.2 billion of new debt. At closing, BD is expected to have net leverage of approximately 3x and expects to de-lever to its 2.5x long-term net leverage target within 12 to 18 months of closing, primarily by deploying its free cash flows to debt repayment.
The transaction is expected to close before the end of the calendar year and is subject to customary regulatory reviews and closing conditions.
