Haemonetics, Pall ink $550M deal

Haemonetics ($HAE) is buying the blood collection, filtration and processing lines of Pall ($PLL) in a $550 million deal, picking up four manufacturing facilities and 1,300 employees in the transaction.

The Braintree, MA- based Haemonetics gets manufacturing facilities in Covina, CA; Tijuana, Mexico; and Ascoli, Italy, as well as a portion of Pall's operations in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. It will pay $535 million at closing, and another $15 million when Pall completes the transfer of related blood media manufacturing capabilities in 2016, the companies said in a release.

Separately, Haemonetics is buying some collection, processing and blood storage lines from Hemerus Medical for $27 million, according to President and CEO Brian Concannon. Hemerus is seeking FDA approval of a new line of automated products designed to make the process more efficient and productive. Most whole blood collection--specifically for red cell collection--is still done manually.

Haemonetics expects to close both acquisitions by its fiscal 2013 second quarter.

Haemonetics makes systems used both by blood banks and by hospitals. Concannon said the Pall deal not only gives his company manufacturing operations in manual collection and processing; it will also strengthen the "relationships with major blood authorities and key customers we have in common." He has pegged the global market for blood collection at $1.2 billion.

Pall CEO Larry Kingsley said the company believes its customers will "immediately benefit from Haemonetics' extended portfolio of blood management solutions."

This is the second large investment in the world plasma market announced recently. Baxter International ($BAX) will spend more than $1 billion on a new plant in Covington, GA, that will expand its plasma fractionation capacity by more than 3 million liters annually. The market for plasma products in the U.S. alone is estimated at $7 billion a year. 

- check out the Bloomberg story
- get the Pall release
- read the Hemerus release

Related Articles:
Haemonetics taking on Pall blood-processing business lines for $550M
Baxter to erect $1B plasma plant