Steris Plc, a maker of sterilization products and services, agreed to buy smaller rival Cantel Medical Corp. for about $3.6 billion, as the wave of healthcare acquisitions continues into 2021.
Cantel shareholders will get about $16.93 in cash and 0.33787 of a Steris share, or a total of about $84.66 per Cantel share based on Steris’s closing share price of $200.46 on Monday. The buyer is paying no premium.
Including debt, the deal is valued at $4.6 billion, according to a statement Tuesday. Steris plans to fund the takeover and repay part of Cantel’s debt with $2 billion in new borrowings.
Steris sells products and services to sterilize surgical instruments and operating rooms as well as research labs. Little Falls, New Jersey-based Cantel serves a similar market, with disinfectants and detergents for endoscopy procedures, single-used products for dentists and water purification systems for dialysis facilities.
Healthcare companies have already unveiled several acquisitions in 2021 after announcing $362.7 billion of deals last year. In December, AstraZeneca Plc agreed to acquire rare-disease specialist Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $39 billion in the industry’s biggest transaction of 2020.
Last week, Centene Corp. agreed to buy Magellan Health Inc. in a transaction valuing the manager of behavioral health services at $2.2 billion.
Steris is legally based in Dublin, though its operational headquarters is in Mentor, Ohio.
