Viant Explores Options Including Sale That Might Fetch Around $3 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Medical device maker Viant is exploring strategic options including a potential sale that could value it at $2 billion to $3 billion and perhaps more, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company, backed by health-care focused private equity firm Water Street, has been talking to advisers and a sale process could begin this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The company, based in Foxborough, Massachusetts, generates $200 million a year in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the people said.

Viant is expected to draw takeover interest from private equity firms, one of the people said. The company and Water Street haven't made a final decision on pursuing a sale and their plans could change, they said.

“Water Street and Viant are focused on continuing to expand the company's capabilities,” Kelly Zitlow, a spokesperson for the private equity firm, said in an email. “There is no accuracy to the rumor that we are exploring a potential sale at this time.”

The Ebitda information described by the people wasn't accurate, she said.

A representative for Viant didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Chicago-based Water Street and JLL Partners bought the company, then called MedPlast, from Robert W. Baird & Co.'s private investment arm in 2016, according to a statement. The company re-branded itself as Viant in 2018 after the acquisition of a surgical and orthopedics business, saying in a statement at the time that its sales had almost doubled to $1 billion.

Viant makes medical instruments and implants and now has about 6,000 employees according to its website. In addition to its headquarters, the company has 18 offices and facilities in 17 U.S. cities, as well as locations in China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Mexico and the U.K.