(Reuters) – U.S. medical devices maker Biomet Inc filed with U.S. regulators on Friday to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common shares as its private equity owners look to cash out.
Biomet was taken private for $11.4 billion in 2007 by the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), Blackstone Group LP (BX.N), KKR & Co LP (KKR.N) and TPG Capital LP, who own 97.04 percent of the company.
The consortium had raised its offer after its original offer of $10.9 billion was deemed too low.
Founded in 1977 and based in Warsaw, Indiana, Biomet designs, manufactures andmarkets products that include dental implants and artificial hip joints.
The company competes with Smith & Nephew Plc and Stryker Corp (SYK.N).
Biomet was bought out just before the financial crisis hit, pulling the markets down. The crisis hurt the medical device industry as patients delayed surgery and joint replacements.
The company is one of the few large companies that were taken over by private equity firms during the buyout boom but have not gone public yet.
Other large private equity-owned companies that have gone public in the past 12 months include hotel chain Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc (HLT.N), oil and gas company Antero Resources Corp (AR.N) and industrials supply company HD Supply Holdings Inc (HDS.O).
Biomet’s sales topped $3 billion in the fiscal year ended May 31, 2013, up 8 percent from the previous year. The company had debt of about $5.9 billion debt as of November 30.
Reuters had reported in late February that Biomet had hired BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan to lead the offering.
The company will list its shares under the symbol “BMET”. It did not say how many shares it will offer or the exchange it will list on. (link.reuters.com/hav47v)
The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filing is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.
(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
