NEW YORK ─ Ortho Clinical Diagnostics said after the market close on Wednesday that it has priced an initial public offering of 76,000,000 ordinary shares at $17 per share for anticipated gross proceeds of $1.29 billion.
Shares of the Raritan, New Jersey-based pure-play diagnostics firm are expected to begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under the symbol OCDX.
Ortho has granted the IPO underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 11,400,000 additional shares at the initial public offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions. Â
The diagnostics company said it intends to use the net proceeds to redeem $160 million in aggregate principal amount of 7.375 percent senior notes due in 2025 and $270 million in aggregate principal amount of 7.250 percent senior notes due in 2028; to repay borrowings under its dollar term loan facility; and for working capital and general corporate purposes, which may include further repayment of debt.
The offering is being made through an underwriting group led by JP Morgan, BofA Securities, and Goldman Sachs, who are lead bookrunning managers; Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank, Evercore ISI, and Piper Sandler, who are joint bookrunning managers; and ING, Macquarie Capital, Nomura, TCG Capital Markets, Drexel Hamilton, HC Wainwright, Ramirez, and Siebert Williams Shank, who are co-managers.
In 2014, Ortho was acquired by private equity firm the Carlyle Group from Johnson & Johnson for approximately $4 billion.
The firm announced recently that it expected to offer 70 million ordinary shares at an initial public offering price expected to be between $20.00 and $23.00 per share.