The intensifying regulatory environment certainly contributed to many changes among publicly traded companies during the last year, but other forces also were at play. As Business Tennessee updates its list of publicly traded companies in the state, we highlight some of the more significant transactions, which in some cases changed the contents of this list.
* Medco Health Solutions (MHS), a pharmacy benefit manager based in New Jersey, said in February it had agreed to acquire Memphis-based Accredo Health (ACDO), in a cash and stock deal valued then at $2.2 billion. Accredo, a specialty pharmacy services provider, offered Medco a platform for future expansion into the fast-growing specialty pharmacy space, which Medco first entered in February 2003. The combined companies are expected to generate more than $4 billion in annual net revenues. Accredo has been in the business of providing drugs to treat hemophilia, immunodeficiency disorders, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. The Medco transaction was expected to close in mid-2005.
* Knoxville-based CTI Molecular Imaging (CTMI), a supplier of products and services for PET diagnostic imaging technology, was acquired in May by Illinois-based Siemens Medical Solutions USA, a subsidiary of Siemens AG (SI). The transaction was valued at about $1 billion. The giant Siemens in June said it had formed a new division called Siemens Medical Solutions Molecular Imaging, which combined its nuclear medicine operations with CTI Molecular as part of the company’s vision to be the “innovation trendsetter in the health care industry.” Ronald Nutt, founder and former president and CEO of CTI Molecular, became the chief scientific advisor of the new Siemens division.
*IPIX Corp. (IPIX) has relocated its headquarters from San Ramon, Calif., to Reston, Va., and maintains a sales office in Oak Ridge, where the company was founded. The video surveillance company moved its headquarters after it recently sold its IPIX AdMission business unit to a privately held Delaware corporation. In June, IPIX said it had completed a $10 million private placement of common stock. The company’s president and chief executive Clara Conti said the funding would allow IPIX to bolster its sales and marketing efforts to capture a larger share of the surveillance and visual intelligence markets. David Wilds, managing partner of Nashville-based First Avenue Partners, has served as chairman of IPIX since 2002.
Brentwood-based LifePoint Hospitals (LPNT) in April completed its roughly $1.7 billion acquisition of Province Healthcare, which also was headquartered in Brentwood. The combined company, which retained the LifePoint name and ticker, includes 50 hospitals in 20 states and roughly 18,000 employees affiliated with the company.
* In October 2004, National Commerce Financial merged with SunTrust (STI) under the name SunTrust Banks. The transaction was valued at nearly $7 billion. At the time the deal was announced, SunTrust said the combined company would rank No. 3 in overall market share in the Southeast and No. 7 among the largest U.S. banks, with $148 billion in assets and $97 billion in deposits.
* Fresenius Medical Care AG (FMS) said in May it had agreed to buy Nashville-based dialysis services company Renal Care Group (RCI). Fresenius, one of the world’s largest providers of dialysis services, would assume $500 million of Renal Care debt, and Renal Care shareholders would receive $48 a share. In June, Renal Care said the Federal Trade Commission had requested additional information in connection with the proposed acquisition and that the request would extend the deal’s waiting period until 30 days after the two companies complied with the request.
* ShoLodge, the Hendersonville-based company that had developed, owned and franchised Shoney’s Inns and GuestHouse Inns & Suites, this year delisted with the Nasdaq stock exchange and stopped reporting to the SEC. These moves were part of the company’s plan to sell all of its hotel properties and pay off its public debt, which Chief Executive Leon Moore said was completed by early June. At that time, ShoLodge said it had reduced its losses from $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2004 to $164,000 in the first quarter this year.
* Smith & Nephew, a huge medial devices company that trades on the London Stock Exchange as SN, also is quoted as an American Depositary Receipt on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SNN. The company’s USA Orthopaedics operations are based in Memphis, where three new products were introduced in the past year, aimed at improving total knee replacement, hip implants and pain from osteoarthritis in the knee.
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