Accellent Inc., a leading provider of fully integrated outsourced manufacturing and engineering services to the medical device industry, and Lake Region Medical, a privately held, Original Development Manufacturer (ODM) of minimally invasive devices and delivery systems to the cardiology and endovascular markets, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Accellent will acquire Lake Region Medical.
This acquisition supports Accellent’s strategic intent to grow its Cardio & Vascular business segment. “Over the last several years we have been positioning Accellent for growth. We have refined our strategic focus, improved our execution, optimized our operations and built a robust sales pipeline. Lake Region Medical is an excellent company with a strong quality reputation, product development capability involving clinical thought leaders and a deep medical device manufacturing history,” said Don Spence, Chairman and CEO of Accellent who will lead the new enterprise. “Combining our companies will create a leading interventional vascular business with more scale, a broader product offering and deeper customer relationships.”
Jeremy Friedman, President and COO, Cardio & Vascular business for Accellent agrees this is an instrumental step in the company’s overall market strategy. “Lake Region Medical is a leading designer and producer of guide wires and other wire-based products used for therapy delivery in minimally invasive procedures. This makes for a perfect fit with our product strategy and will allow us to offer our customers a strong portfolio of both guide wire and catheter products.”
Founded in 1947 by Joe Fleischhacker Sr., Lake Region Medical has a rich history of innovation that stems from Mr. Fleischhacker’s development of the process to manufacture pacing coils used with the first implantable pacemakers. Since then, the company has been owned and operated by the Fleischhacker family. Lake Region Medical’s CEO and Owner, Joe Fleischhacker Jr. stated, “We are pleased that we have found a company like Accellent who shares our values and strong focus on patient care yet brings different strengths to the table. This combination supports Lake Region’s product strategy to enhance our ODM competence in a wider range of products used for delivering therapy to patients. On behalf of Kate, Mark and the rest of the Fleischhacker family, we all look forward to the continued growth and success of Lake Region Medical,” he added.
Mark Fleischhacker, COO and owner of Lake Region Medical, added that the Accellent and Lake Region combination is the right strategic move: “Combining Lake Region’s strength in guide wires with Accellent’s strength in catheters will create a supplier that can offer interventional delivery, access and retrieval systems to complement our customers’ core therapeutic devices. In parallel, Accellent’s deep contract manufacturing expertise will provide an even stronger precision component offering to all of our medical device customers.”
“Culturally, the values of the two companies are strongly aligned. We believe this is a win-win for everyone, the Fleischhacker family, the Accellent and Lake Region Medical employees and most importantly our customers and the patients that they serve,” stated Katherine (Kate) Roehl, Chief Administrative Officer and owner of Lake Region Medical.
As part of the transaction, all of Lake Region Medical’s highly-experienced employees and state of the art facilities in Chaska, Minnesota, New Ross and Galway, Ireland and Shanghai, China will become part of the combined enterprise.
The merged business will be called Lake Region Medical and the company will continue to use the Accellent brand in marketing the Advanced Surgical business.
“Lake Region Medical has an unparalleled reputation within the cardiology and endovascular markets as well as the industry as a whole. We are pleased to be able to carry on this legacy under the Lake Region name as we grow the combined company,” said Don Spence.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
UBS Investment Bank, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Wells Fargo Securities served as financial advisors to Accellent, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisor. Piper Jaffray & Co. served as exclusive financial advisor to Lake Region Medical, and Faegre Baker Daniels LLP served as legal advisor.
