The medtech industry just got a little more crowded.
Just a little over a year after announcing a plan to spin off its spine and dental businesses, Zimmer Biomet has completed the separation, culminating in the creation of a standalone public company dubbed ZimVie.
The new entity’s name combines a nod to its progenitor with the French word for “life.” Interestingly, that’s almost the exact same naming convention Zimmer competitor Abbott used when spinning off its pharmaceutical arm into AbbVie in 2013—though the latter half of AbbVie’s name comes from Latin, rather than French. (Neither Abbott nor AbbVie have yet responded to requests for comment on the parallelism.)
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With the completion of the spinoff, ZimVie began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ZIMV.” It opened Tuesday morning at a stock price of $33.35 but within the first hour of trading had already dropped below the $30 mark.
About 80% of ZimVie’s shares were distributed Tuesday to existing Zimmer Biomet stockholders at a rate of one ZimVie share for every 10 Zimmer shares. Zimmer previously said it would hold on to the remaining 20% stake for an unspecified length of time before eventually divesting them in “a tax-efficient manner.”
In its first year, ZimVie is expecting to chalk up revenues of $1 billion, the company shared during its inaugural investor day last month. That would represent flat growth compared to what the spine and dental businesses brought in under the overall $7.8 billion Zimmer Biomet umbrella in 2021.
“The spinoff of ZimVie marks a major milestone in the active portfolio management of Zimmer Biomet as we continue to strengthen our position as a global leader in the medtech space,” said Bryan Hanson, Zimmer’s president and CEO. “We are confident that this transaction will create shareholder value for both companies and will allow us to increase our focus and enhance revenue growth for our core businesses.”
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As a standalone company, ZimVie now takes the reins of Zimmer’s longstanding spine and dental businesses. The former category includes devices and technologies like the Rosa One Spine robotic surgery system and Mobi-C artificial cervical discs, while the dentistry profile includes a variety of implants, impression systems and digital tools.
The new entity is led by Vafa Jamali, who joined ZimVie as CEO fresh off a stint as chief commercial officer of devicemaker Rockley Photonics. He also previously held leadership roles at Medtronic, Covidien, Cardinal Health and Baxter.
“Our solutions hold strong positions in the dental and spine markets, which represent a collective $20 billion addressable market opportunity,” Jamali said. “We intend to advance our positioning in each of these markets over time as we execute on multiple opportunities for growth and continue innovating to offer better solutions that help restore daily life.”
Zimmer Biomet, meanwhile, is now free to focus on its other orthopedic segments, spanning the knee, hip, sports medicine and craniomaxillofacial and thoracic businesses.