The Carlyle Group is in exclusive talks to buy Johnson & Johnson‘s blood-testing unit, in what could lead to a transaction worth about $4 billion, a person briefed on the matter said on Monday.
Talks were ongoing and could still fall apart, this person cautioned.
Carlyle emerged as the lead bidder after an auction process that Johnson & Johnson has run for the division, which had drawn both private equity bidders and corporate suitors. The health-care titan has been looking to sell slower-growing businesses as it focuses on higher-growth opportunities.
Carlyle has struck a number of healthcare deals in recent years, including a $3.9 billion takeover, with Hellman & Friedman, of the clinical drug testing company Pharmaceutical Product Development more than two years ago, and a $6.3 billion acquisition of the nursing home operator ManorCare in 2007. (The latter has generated controversy for the investment giant.)
The firm would draw more than $1 billion of the cash required for a deal from its latest leveraged buyout fund, which formally closed last month at about $13 billion, according to the person briefed on the matter.
News of Carlyle’s exclusive talks with Johnson & Johnson was reported earlier by Reuters.
