AmerisourceBergen to buy PharMEDium for $2.58 billion

[October 07, 2015]  (Reuters) - Drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp agreed to buy PharMEDium Healthcare Holdings Inc for $2.58 billion from private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, expanding its business of supplying compounded drugs to hospitals.

Compounding is a process in which pharma products are diluted to create doses that are not sold commercially.

Increased regulatory oversight following a fungal meningitis outbreak at a compounding pharmacy in 2012 has escalated the costs for hospitals to produce compounded products internally, boosting demand for large-scale firms such as PharMEDium.

"PharMEDium brings ABC a complementary service line that is undergoing a growth renaissance as hospitals more aggressively outsource compounded sterile needs in wake of new government regulations," Baird Equity Research analyst Eric Coldwell wrote in a note.

Lake Forest, Illinois-based PharMEDium provides compounded intravenous and local anesthesia products to about 3,000 hospitals in the United States.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice acquired PharMEDium in January 2014. While no financial terms were disclosed, media reports said the deal was done at around a $900 million enterprise valuation.

PharMEDium filed for a $100 million IPO in August, planning to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

AmerisourceBergen has been focusing on M&As to expand its product offerings. In January, the company bought MWI Veterinary for $2.5 billion to expand into animal health.

The PharMEDium acquisition is expected to add 22-26 cents to AmerisourceBergen's adjusted earnings per share in 2016 and generate savings of about $30 million by 2018, the company said on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley is the financial adviser to AmerisourceBergen, while J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Credit Suisse advised PharMEDium.

AmerisourceBergen's shares closed down 2 percent at $93.03 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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