Bausch
+
Lomb,
a
company
that
started
as
a
small
optical
goods
shop
in
upstate
New
York
and
grew
to
become
a
global
ophthalmic
products
business,
is
returning
to
the
public
markets.
The
company
has
filed
preliminary
paperwork
for
an
IPO,
a
deal
that
could
become
one
of
the
biggest
ever
in
the
healthcare
field.
The
IPO
filing
was
expected.
Bausch
Health
Companies
(BHC),
the
parent
company
of
Bausch
+
Lomb,
announced
in
2020
its
plans
to
spin
off
the
eye
health
business
as
an
independent
and
publicly
traded
company.
In
documents
filed
with
securities
regulators
on
Thursday,
Vaughan,
Ontario-based
Bausch
+
Lomb
said
it
has
applied
to
list
its
shares
on
both
the
New
York
Stock
Exchange
and
the
Toronto
Stock
Exchange
under
the
stock
symbol
“BLCO.”
Bausch
+
Lomb
is
one
of
two
separations
and
IPOs
BHC
is
preparing.
Last
August,
the
company
announced
plans
to
spin
off
Solta
Medical,
its
skin
care
business.
The
pharma
business
of
BHC
that
remains
will
also
be
a
standalone,
publicly
traded
company.
Speaking
during
a
fireside
chat
at
the
annual
J.P.
Morgan
HealthCare
Conference
on
Wednesday,
BHC
Chairman
and
CEO
Joe
Papa
said
the
next
step
would
be
the
filing
of
registration
statements
with
securities
regulators.
Bausch
+
Lomb
ended
up
being
filed
ahead
of
Solta.
“We
are
substantially
complete
in
our
planning
and
preparation
to
launch
the
Bausch
+
Lomb
and
the
Solta
IPOs,
obviously
those
will
be
subject
to
market
conditions
and
appropriate
approvals,”
Papa
said.
“But
we
are
positioned
to
move
forward
with
either
the
Bausch
+
Lomb
or
the
Solta
IPO
quickly
when
market
conditions
are
right
for
each
of
them.”
In
the
filing,
Bausch
+
Lomb
set
a
$100
million
placeholder
figure
for
proposed
stock
offering.
IPO
research
firm
Renaissance
Capital
estimates
that
the
company’s
return
to
the
public
markets
could
raise
about
$3
billion.
According
to
research
from
Reuters,
the
biggest
U.S.
IPO
ever,
in
terms
of
dollars
raised,
was
Alibaba
Group’s
$25
billion
stock
market
debut
in
2014.
Visa
is
next
with
$19.6
billion,
followed
by
General
Motors
with
$18.1
billion.
Bausch
+
Lomb
traces
its
origins
to
1853
when
John
Jacob
Bausch
set
up
an
optical
goods
shop
in
Rochester,
New
York.
According
to
the
company’s
corporate
history,
Bausch’s
friend,
Henry
Lomb,
loaned
him
$60
to
keep
the
business
going;
as
it
grew,
Lomb
became
a
full
partner.
From
its
eyeglasses
frames
beginnings,
the
company
went
on
to
become
a
pioneer
in
contact
lenses.
Those
products
are
part
of
what
is
now
Bausch
+
Lomb’s
vision
care
business,
one
of
three
operating
segments.
The
other
two
segments
are
pharmaceutical
and
surgical.
According
to
a
BHC
investor
presentation,
Bausch
+
Lomb
has
about
12,500
employees
in
100
countries.
For
nearly
50
years,
Bausch
+
Lomb
traded
on
the
New
York
Stock
Exchange
until
the
company
was
taken
private
in
2007
via
a
$4.5
billion
acquisition
by
Warburg
Pincus
and
Welsh,
Carson,
Anderson
&
Stowe.
In
2013,
Valeant
Pharmaceuticals
paid
$8.7
billion
to
buy
Bausch
+
Lomb
from
the
private
equity
firms,
making
it
its
eye
care
division.
Five
years
later,
Valeant
adopted
the
name
of
its
subsidiary,
changing
the
corporation’s
name
to
Bausch
Health
Companies.
Valeant
was
rebranding
after
weathering
an
accounting
scandal
and
facing
scrutiny
for
its
practice
of
acquiring
drugs
then
steeply
hiking
their
prices.
When
Valeant
acquired
Bausch
+
Lomb,
the
eye
products
company’s
annual
revenue
was
nearly
$1.3
billion.
Revenue
in
2020
topped
$3.3
billion,
according
to
the
IPO
filing.
That’s
a
9.3%
decline
compared
to
the
prior
year,
a
change
the
company
attributes
to
the
impacts
of
Covid-19.
However,
sales
are
recovering.
For
the
nine
months
ending
September
30,
2021,
revenue
was
about
$2.7
billion,
a
nearly
12%
increase
over
the
same
period
in
2020.
Bausch
+
Lomb
won’t
receive
any
proceeds
from
its
IPO.
The
money
raised
will
go
to
BHC,
according
to
the
filing.
Papa
said
in
his
JPM
presentation
that
proceeds
from
both
the
Bausch
+
Lomb
and
Solta
IPOs
would
be
used
to
pay
down
BHC’s
debt.
Though
Bausch
+
Lomb
is
separating
from
its
parent,
the
two
entities
will
continue
to
be
closely
linked.
The
number
of
shares
for
the
offering
and
pricing
details
have
not
yet
been
set,
but
Bausch
+
Lomb
said
in
the
filing
that
it
will
be
what’s
called
a
controlled
company—after
the
IPO,
the
majority
of
shares
will
be
owned
by
BHC.
Meanwhile,
the
rebranding
will
continue.
Once
the
separations
of
Bausch
+
Lomb
and
Solta
are
complete,
BHC
said
its
remaining
pharma
business
will
take
on
a
new
name.
Photo
by
Flickr
user
Ken
Teegardin
via
a
Creative
Commons
license