Biomet Going Public to Reduce Debt

It’s official. Biomet, Inc. is going public to reduce company debt.

The company announced on March 7, 2014 that its parent company, LVB Acquisition, Inc., has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. In connection with the offering, LVB Acquisition intends to change its name to Biomet Group, Inc.

The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo Securities, Barclays and Morgan Stanley are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering.

Previous and accurate news reports stated that according to unnamed “people, ” the public offering that could raise around $1 billion.

The preliminary prospectus was not yet available.

This will bring to full circle the company being a public corporation again being taken private for $11.3 billion in 2007 by four Wall Street buyout firms. The buyout came after company founder, Dane Miller, Ph.D. was removed as the company CEO. He returned with the bankers to retake the public company by buying out the public shareholders. According to securities filings, $5.9 billion of debt still remains on the company’s balance sheet.

That debt is in stark contrast to Biomet competitors sitting on huge piles of cash.

Biomet expects to use the net proceeds of the offering primarily to reduce outstanding indebtedness.