Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care has announced a $1.7 billion merger agreement with US-based Liberty Dialysis Holdings, Inc., the holding company for Liberty Dialysis and Renal Advantage.
Liberty Dialysis has annual sales of approximately $1 billion and operates approximately 260 dialysis clinics, although Fresenius has said that some facilities may need to be divested to secure regulatory clearance.
The deal is expected to close in early 2012, and is expected to be accretive to earnings in the first year after closing of the transaction.
In a separate deal, Fresenius also agreed to acquire the US-based company American Access Care Holdings (AAC) for $385 million. AAC operates 28 freestanding outpatient centres that serve the vascular access needs of dialysis patients.
This second transaction, due to close in the fourth quarter of 2011, is expected to add approximately $175 million to Fresenius’s annual revenue.
Fresenius said that acquiring AAC will enable it to achieve critical mass in its vascular access business, and that the deal has strategic importance because of the scale, resources and operational efficiency it brings to its vascular access operations. The company added that this is especially true given the US government’s proposal to include the type of access and the frequency of access-related infections within the quality outcome component of the dialysis bundled reimbursement system by 2014.
Commenting on the two deals, Dr. Ben Lipps, chief executive officer of Fresenius Medical Care, said: “Our acquisitions of Liberty Dialysis and American Access Care in the US are important steps in our strategy of expanding our service network to achieve excellent patient care in a more cost effective integrated model.”
Headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany, Fresenius is the world's largest integrated provider of products and services for dialysis patients. Through its network of 2,838 dialysis clinics in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Africa, the company provides dialysis treatment to 225,909 patients around the globe.
Fresenius is also the world's leading provider of dialysis products including hemodialysis machines, dialysers and related disposable products.
