BSN Medical sale may fetch EQT Partners around $3.4 bn

BSN Medical is expected to draw interest from several suitors after its owner Swedish private equity firm EQT Partners put the German bandage and plaster cast-maker up for sale last year.

Citing people close to the matter, Reuters yesterday reported that buyout firms BC Partners, Blackstone and CVC, and BSN Medical rivals such as Sweden's SCA and US and Chinese companies are expected to submit offers of around €3 billion ($3.4 billion)

EQT will compare the bids to the potential return from possible stock market listing, with the help of JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, the report said.

A successful sale would come five months after EQT sold device maker Atos Medical to peer PAI Europe for €850 million.

In 2012, EQT had outbid BC Partners, CVC Capital Partners and French investment firm Wendel SA to acquire BSN Medical for about €1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) from Montagu Private Equity. (See: EQT buying German bandage and plaster cast maker BSN Medical for $2.2 bn) Hamburg-based BSN Medical, formed through the 2001 joint venture between Smith & Nephew and Beiersdorf AG, makes bandages, casts and orthopaedic braces.

The company also makes medical products that are used in the treatment of venous and lymphatic diseases, including varicose veins, deep vein thrombosis, chronic venous insufficiency, venous ulcers, peripheral edemas, and lymphoedema.

Its brands include Leukoplast, Cutimed, Jobst, Delta and Actimove.

The company employs over 6,000 people and has production facilities in Germany, France, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, the US and Venezuela.

BSN Medical, run by CEO, Guido Oelkers, generated revenues of €861 million in 2015.