Almost 18 months since its parent company announced Bausch + Lomb (B+L) would be spun off as a pure-play eye health company, the entity has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.
According to documentation, the Bausch Health subsidiary plans to raise US$100 million (AU$138 m), but multiple outlets report this is a placeholder figure often used to calculate filing fees, which is often altered.
It comes after an August 2020 announcement that B+L would become its own independent publicly traded entity that would consist of the vision care, surgical, consumer and ophthalmic Rx businesses.
This would be separated from the remainder of the Bausch business comprising a diversified pharmaceutical company with leading positions in gastroenterology aesthetics/dermatology, neurology and international pharmaceuticals.
After the completion of the B+L IPO, the parent company, Bausch Health, will continue to indirectly own a majority of the voting power of common shares eligible to vote in the election of directors. As a result, it will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of the NYSE.
According to the company’s prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, B+L’s revenues totalled about US$2.76 billion (AU$3.83 b) for the first nine months of 2021 and US$3.41 (AU$4.74 b) billion for the full year of 2020.
With a 170-year history, it has a portfolio of more than 400 eye-related products. It also has a significant global research, development, manufacturing and commercial footprint of approximately 12,500 employees and a presence in approximately 100 countries.
“We believe we have a significant innovation opportunity today, with a substantial pipeline of over 100 projects in various stages of pre-clinical and clinical development, including new contact lenses, contact lenses to slow myopia progress in children, prescription medications for myopia, next-generation cataract equipment, premium IOLs, investigational treatments for dry eye and preservative-free formulations of a range of eye drops, among others, that are designed to grow our portfolio and accelerate future growth,” the company’s prospectus stated.
“The markets in which we operate are large and growing. We estimate that the global eye health market was nearly US$50 billion in revenue in 2019, which we believe will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of nearly 4% through 2025.”
According to Vision Monday, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs & Co. are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the IPO. J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, BofA Securities, Guggenheim Securities, Jefferies, Evercore ISI, Wells Fargo Securities and Deustche Bank Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the IPO, and DNB Markets, HSBC and Truist Securities are acting as co-managers for the IPO.
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