Johnson Matthey completes sale of medical device components to Montagu

Johnson Matthey today announced that it has completed the sale of its Medical Device Components (MDC) business.

Private equity firm Montagu paid $700 million in cash for the company on a “cash-free and debt-free basis,” Johnson Matthey said.

“The board confirms its intention to return the £250 million net proceeds from the sale of MDC through a market buy-back program,” Johnson Matthey told investors. “This will begin later this week and further details will be announced in due course.”

San Diego-based MDC develops and manufactures miniature components for minimally invasive medical devices used in rapidly evolving clinical specialties. It focuses on complex and precise components made of platinum group metals and nitinol.

The company has decades of experience in metallurgy, micromachining and coating of these specialty alloys. It has manufacturing facilities in San Diego, Mexicali, Mexico and Tullamarine, Australia.

Manufacturing medical nitinol: How this nickel-titanium alloy for medical devices is made

MDC will now operate as a stand-alone company under the leadership of previous management. That includes CEO Don Freeman, who said after announcing the deal in March that the company planned to grow organically and through mergers and acquisitions.

“MDC has rare and difficult to replicate capabilities that allow it to support the most complex and demanding precision-engineered components at scale,” Montagu partner Adrien Sassi said at the time. “With the support of Johnson Matthey, Don and his team have positioned the company to capitalize on the rapid growth of its core markets and blue-chip OEM customers. We look forward to supporting their ambitious expansion plans.”

This is the latest deal in the nitinol market as medical device makers find new applications for the nickel-titanium alloy, from orthopedics to brain and heart implants and interventional devices.

Earlier this year, Confluent Medical Technologies invested at least $50 million in ATI’s nitinol material melting and conversion infrastructure. Last year, Resonetics bought SAES Getters’ medical nitinol business for $900 million.

—Deputy Editor Sean Whooley contributed to this report.