In line with its strategy to grow through inorganic means, worldwide distributor of health care products and services, Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC), recently decided to acquire scil animal care company GmbH – an animal health laboratory and imaging diagnostic products and services distributor in North America and Europe. Although financial terms of the deal remained undisclosed, Henry Schein expects this acquisition to close in the second quarter of 2015.
Germany-based scil, which had $70 million sales for the 12-month period ended Sep 30, 2014, currently operates in the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, with a distribution network that spans across 25 additional countries. Apart from selling, providing services and supporting laboratory diagnostic and imaging solutions to veterinarians, scil animal care also provides product installation and training, loaner and repair services, as well as a broad array of educational programs.
Post the acquisition, scil’s expanded reach in North America and Europe should help Henry Schein expand its Animal Health Equipment capabilities in these geographies. scil will add Canada and Italy to the list of countries where Henry Schein Animal Health already serves. According to Henry Schein, the addition of scil will help expand the company’s diagnostics product category and garner market share for its animal health diagnostics partners, which include Abaxis, Inc. and Heska Corporation. However, Henry Schein expects the acquisition to be slight dilutive to its 2015 earnings per share.
Henry Schein’s revenue growth has been consistently supported by niche acquisitions. Evidently, the company has been on an acquisition spree over the recent past. Its acquisition strategy helps it to pursue targets that provide access to additional product lines. Last July, Henry Schein Animal Health acquired roughly 60% ownership stake in SmartPak, a leading provider of horse supplies and equine supplements across the U.S. Also, in April, the company acquired approximately 80% stake in privately-held Medivet S.A., a leading distributor of animal health products and services in Poland.
Currently, Henry Schein retains a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the med/dental-supply industry include Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH), McKesson Corporation (MCK) and CR Bard Inc. (BCR). All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Get all Zacks Research Reports and be alerted to fast-breaking buy and sell opportunities every trading day.
Be the first to comment