Brady Corp. (NYSE: BRC) agreed to spend $300 million in cash for Precision Dynamics Corp. (PDC), a maker of identification products for the healthcare sector.

Private equity firm Water Street Healthcare Partners sold the Valencia, Calif.-based target, which manufactures patient wristbands, specialty labels and identification systems used in hospitals when admitting and discharing patients.

Included in the deal are PDC's factories in Tijuana, Mexico and Port Orange, Fla. The company, which also has a European sales office in Nivelles, Belgium, generates annual sales of about $173 million.

Water Street, headquartered in Chicago, invested $75 million in PDC in July 2007 as a means of expanding its market position and banking on the company's developing bar-coding identification wristbands, which have now become a standard in most hospitals.

Brady is a manufacturer of identification products and materials that are used in identifying people. The company, which has a $1.6 billion market capitalization, is based in Milwaukee.