(Reuters) -Private equity firm KKR has taken a large stake in Henry Schein and plans to work with the distributor of medical products to improve its operations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.
Shares of the company rose more than 6% to $80.69 premarket after the report.
KKR plans to announce a deal that includes increasing its stake to 12% with the option to buy up to an additional 2.9% in the future, WSJ reported.
Henry Schein has agreed to give the private equity firm two board seats, the report added.
Henry Schein and KKR did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The medical and dental supplies distributor, which has a market capitalization of about $9.5 billion, has been subject to an activist campaign by Ananym Capital Management as well.
The activist investor plans to nominate as many as six directors to the board at Henry Schein, arguing it needs to start searching for a new CEO, cut costs and optimize capital allocation, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Henry Schein’s CEO Stanley Bergman has been at the helm since 1989. A representative from KKR will join a board committee working on the CEO succession planning, the WSJ report said.
KKR has experience in the dental business and owns the dental groups Heartland Dental and 123Dentist.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
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