A duo of healthtech firms have announced an agreement in which Boston-based Haemonetics will acquire Quebec City-based OpSens in a roughly $345 million CAD ($253 million USD) deal.
Haemonetics will acquire all outstanding shares of OpSens for CAD $2.90 per share in an all-cash transaction representing a fully diluted equity value of approximately USD $253 million at current exchange rate. News of the deal sent OpSens’ TSX value up almost 47 percent on Tuesday, to $2.84 per share.
Founded in 2003, OpSens manufactures a range of fibre optic sensor solutions used in medical devices, particularly in heart health, and other industrial applications.
One of its main products is the OptoWire, a pressure guidewire that aims to improve clinical outcomes by measuring fractional flow reserve (FFR) and diastolic pressure ratio (dPR) to aid clinicians in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with coronary artery disease.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, OpSens CEO Louis Laflamme said “it was a challenge to generate a profitable sales force” as a company with only two products, and that while OpSens was relevant enough to have a global sales channel, “it was much smaller than what we will find here with Haemonetics.”
The acquirer, Haemonetics, is a global healthcare company with technology meant to help in blood and plasma component collection, the surgical suite, and hospital transfusion services. One such offering is its transfusion management software that it says helps transfusion laboratories optimize workflows, maintain traceability, and reduce supply chain waste.
Haemonetics outlined the financial and strategic benefits it plans to see from the transaction, including what it identifies as an addressable $1 billion market for OpSens’ fibre optic sensor technology, leveraging its commercial and geographic breadth to accelerate adoption, and to further strengthen its role in interventional cardiology.
Haemonetics plans to finance this acquisition through a combination of cash and a revolving credit facility.
When the transaction closes, it is expected that OpSens will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange and for Haemonetics to submit an application to cease to be a reporting issuer under Canadian securities laws.
The transaction was expected to close by the end of January 2024, but officially completed on December 12, 2023.
UPDATE (12/12/23): This story was updated to note the completion of the acquisition.
Feature image courtesy OpSens via YouTube.
