Symmetry Surgical has agreed to buy Bovie Medical’s core business for $97 million in cash. The deal will give Symmetry Surgical ownership of the Bovie brand and devices used in electrosurgical procedures.
Bovie has spent the past 40 years building its business around electrosurgery, even taking its name from the scientist who invented a device that enables the procedure. Descendants of that device, which generated high-frequency electrical current, are in Bovie’s portfolio today. These devices enable physicians to cut, cauterize and fuse tissues to achieve surgical objectives.
Now Bovie is getting out of the business, although it will continue to supply generators to Symmetry under a manufacturing agreement for at least the next decade. Symmetry will be responsible for selling the generators and line of accessories Bovie built up to help doctors perform electrosurgical procedures.
The electrosurgical products and other parts of the core business generated sales of $28.6 million last year, up 3% on 2016. But management has decided Bovie is best served by exiting the business and focusing on its smaller but faster-growing units.
Once the deal goes through, Bovie will be left with its tiny OEM business—which will benefit from the supply agreement with Symmetry—and an advanced energy business. The advanced energy unit is less than half the size of the electrosurgical business but is growing quickly on the back of demand for cosmetic surgery device Renuvion. Bovie will now double down on Renuvion.
“This is a milestone moment for the company, one that creates significant value for our shareholders by significantly enhancing our balance sheet with the addition of more than $70 million in estimated net cash proceeds after taxes and transaction related expenses and allowing us to further focus the organization on our strategic objective of commercializing our J-Plasma/Renuvion technology in the cosmetic surgery market,” Bovie CEO Charlie Goodwin said in a statement.