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After completing $300 billion in healthcare deals over several decades, there is one deal Bausch and Lomb (BLCO) chairman and CEO Brent Saunders won’t be making in 2025.
The one for his contact lens maker with a history dating back to the 1800s.
“No, I doubt it [if we restart the deal process],” Saunders told me on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast (video above; listen in below). “You can never say never, but, look, we have a big ambitious plan for 2025, and frankly, as I look at 2026 and 2027, it’s even a bolder plan. And so we’re heads down and focused on operating the business and driving the best results we can.”
Bausch and Lomb said earlier this month that it had explored taking the company private with a third-party buyer. No deal was reached, as a consortium of private equity firms including TPG (TPG) and Blackstone (BX) reportedly backed out. Bausch and Lomb said it would not pursue a transaction at this time.
But it reiterated a view a full separation from Bausch Health Companies is still the goal. Bausch Health Companies owns 88.4% of Bausch and Lomb.
Saunders believes interested buyers undervalued the company’s product pipeline, which includes new technologies for contact lenses, dry eye relief, and surgical products.
“There’s always skepticism in R&D, and I expect that. But, there was definitely a deeper discount ascribed to our R&D pipeline, whether it be in pharma or contact lenses or surgical, or even consumer,” Saunders explained.
Saunders is known as one of the biggest dealmakers in the pharmaceutical industry of the past 15 years.
In May 2013, during his first run as the CEO of Bausch and Lomb, he orchestrated its $8.7 billion sale to Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
He then took over as the CEO of Forest Laboratories.
By February 2014, Saunders orchestrated the sale of the company to Actavis for $25 billion. He assumed the CEO position.
From there, in November 2014, he pulled off a $70 billion acquisition of Allergan and became its CEO.
That’s where Saunders’s star quickly rose in media circles, overseeing the commercial success of botox and battling with feared activist investor Carl Icahn.
Saunders then sold Allergan to Abbvie (ABBV) for $63 billion in a deal that closed in May 2020. He returned to Bausch and Lomb as CEO in March 2023.
Today, Icahn’s son Brett sits on the Bausch and Lomb board along with hedge fund titan John Paulson and Saunders.
Bausch and Lomb’s latest quarter underscored why Saunders is betting he could drive a higher valuation from a suitor later this year.
The company’s fourth quarter sales rose 9% from the prior year to $1.28 billion. Analysts had expected $1.25 billion. Growth was driven by the company’s vision care segment, where contact lens growth increased by 17% in the US and 11% internationally.
Adjusted earnings of $0.25 a share improved slightly year over year and beat Wall Street forecasts for $0.23 a share.
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For the full year, Bausch and Lomb sees sales in a range of $4.95 billion to $5.05 billion. The Street was at $5.02 billion. The company forecast its dry-eye business to break $1 billion in sales this year, up from $916 million in 2024.
Added Saunders, “Our scientists in-house created a new material that we’re going to drive into clinical trials this year and potentially launch in 2027 which could be a breakthrough — a biomimetic lens that really mimics the biology of your eye in a contact lens. We’re hoping the clinical trials will prove it out that it’s healthier for your eye, but it’s also much more comfortable for your eye and really potentially an upgrade to the standard of care of contact lenses in just a couple years.”
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Three times each week, I field insight-filled conversations and chats with the biggest names in business and markets on Opening Bid. You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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