Water Street Healthcare Partners, a leading private equity firm focused exclusively on health care, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its gastrodiagnostic device company, Sierra Scientific Instruments, to Given Imaging Ltd ( GIVN). Given Imaging, the global leader in patient-friendly GI diagnostic and monitoring solutions, will purchase the business for $35 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in early April.
Water Street was instrumental in building Sierra Scientific into the world's leading provider of diagnostic devices for the clinical gastroenterology market. The firm merged Sierra Scientific with a division of its specialty diagnostic device company, Alpine Biomed Corporation, in 2009 to create the market leader. Sierra Scientific offers a full suite of products that support clinicians with diagnosing a range of GI-tract disorders including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a digestive disorder that Datamonitor estimates to afflict as many as 147 million people globally.
"Sierra Scientific is a strong, well managed company respected by the GI community for its cutting-edge products which deliver reliable performance. This acquisition strengthens Given Imaging's position as the global leader in the gastroesophageal diagnostic market. With manometry, impedance, catheter pH and Bravo wireless pH products, we advance our vision of providing total world-class solutions to our GI customers' evolving product needs," said Homi Shamir, president and chief executive officer, Given Imaging. "From a financial standpoint, acquiring Sierra will increase our revenue base and ultimately profitability. It enables us to diversify our product and geographic revenues through access to additional best-in-class products, people and manufacturing assets. We plan to offer our full product portfolio to our expanded customer base to drive broader use of all of our products."
Sierra Scientific employs 175 people in Los Angeles, where it is headquartered, and in HoChiMinh City, Vietnam, where it recently opened a manufacturing facility. The company achieved revenues of approximately $18 million in 2009. Approximately 60 percent of those revenues were from sales in the United States and 40 percent were from international sales, principally in Europe.