Local lab operator CML Healthcare’s $1.22 billion takeover offer will mean continued investment in the Mississauga facility and will not result in any job loss, says President and CEO Tom Wellner.
“Our core main lab, the largest one in Canada, is in Mississauga and will continue to be in Mississauga,” he told YourMississaugaBiz.com. “It will be difficult to move a central lab that is as efficient and productive as the one on Kennedy Road.”
Wellner said CML has been spending a lot of time upgrading, innovating and bringing in new cutting-edge technology into the Mississauga, making it more efficient and strong.
The 50,000 square foot Mississauga facility also employs 600 people, a significant portion of CML’s total workforce of 2,100 across the country.
Today CML announced that all issued and outstanding shares would be acquired by Toronto-based laboratory services company LifeLabs Inc. for $10.75 per share in cash, in a move valued at $1.22 billion.
The transaction included the assuming of CML’s outstanding debt of $255 million and changes the public company into a private.
Wellner called the move an evolution in the company’s strategy of moving back towards it laboratory operations and continue diversifying their screening services. “We’ve added in Cologic , Mitomix, the XDS test that we just spun out last week,” he said.
With the acquisition by LifeLabs and parent-company OMERS, Wellner said his company has solidified its footprint in Ontario and the country.
“This helps us expand our ability to deliver our very important diagnostic services across Canada and frankly, service molecular markets that are outside of Canada as well,” he said.
Wellner said he is more impressed by the value of the new partnership than the price tag that was paid to create it. “It’s very dynamic and very exciting time,” he said, calling the deal a “great value” for shareholders. “We’re also getting a partner that shares a very common value set that we’ve built here in Mississauga.”
The deal still has to go through a shareholder vote in early September and regulatory hurdles, meaning there will be no immediate changes in executive roles or titles, including Wellner’s.
However, the CML president and CEO did say that in previous acquisitions, like B.C. Biomedical, Borealis and OMERS, key leadership roles were filled with people from both companies.
CML’s Mississauga facility will see continued investment through moves like the company’s recent automation of its biochemistry lines, its Sysmex hematology platform and the installation of a new fully-digital microbiology platform.
LifeLabs Inc. is the general partner of LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services and indirectly owned by pension services and investment company, OMERS Administration Corporation, whose interest is managed by infrastructure investment company Borealis Infrastructure.
Karen K. Ho 