San Antonio, Texas based medical device company Acelity LP Inc. is reported to be considering an initial public offering that could raise up to $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Acelity has reportedly tasked J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch with underwriting the deal. The Wall Street Journal noted that proceeds from the IPO may be used to pay down some of the company’s long term debt.
According to news sources, Acelity, formerly known as Kinetic Concepts, Inc., was founded in 1976 and specializes in developing and commercializing wound-care and regenerative medicine products. Apax Partners and two Canadian pension funds acquired Acelity in a $6.1 billion leveraged buyout in November, 2011. Acelity has since made several acquisitions, the most notable being the nearly $500 million purchase of Systagenix, a wound care company spun out of Johnson & Johnson, in October 2013.
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Acelity maintains a patent portfolio of over 2,000 patents and over 1,000 pending patent applications in the areas of wound-care and regenerative medicine, among others.
In November, 2014 Acelity was ordered to pay $34.7 million in damages to nonprofit LifeNet Health after a jury found that Acelity subsidiary LifeCell Corp. infringed a LifeNet patent.
