Alere rethinks BBI IPO

So much for those IPO plans. Alere ($ALR) last week decided against taking its BBI Diagnostics businesses public on the London Stock Exchange, citing equity market conditions in the U.K.

The Waltham, MA-based Alere didn't give specifics about its change of heart, other than to say that it plans to seek greater value for BBI's businesses--which include a portfolio of products aimed at the healthcare, research, defense, food and cosmetics industries--than could be realized in the current equity market climate.

BBI first disclosed its IPO plans in April, intending to go public near the end of June. At the time, Alere expected to float a 25% ownership interest, it said. Proceeds from the IPO, as well as from a new debt facility, were set to go toward paring down its $3.4 billion debt load.

That outstanding sum nearly cost Alere its independence last year, when an activist investor pressed the company to sell off a sizeable piece of its business and use the cash to pay it off. Instead, like many of its life sciences peers--especially in the world of Big Pharma--Alere in May announced it was undertaking a strategic review, signaling that divestments could soon be on the way.

But the decision not to go through with the IPO doesn't mean Alere isn't still planning to hive off its nonessential business to focus on its main products. "Alere remains committed to its previously communicated strategy of divesting of non-core assets and to the use of proceeds from such divestitures to reduce its outstanding indebtedness," it said in a statement.

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