Update: DaVita Closes Gambro Acquisition

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Kidney dialysis center owner DaVita Inc. said Wednesday that it has closed its $3.1 billion acquisition of the U.S. health-care unit of Sweden’s Gambro AB.


The El Segundo-based company financed the acquisition largely through a new credit facility entered Wednesday, with JP Morgan Securities Inc. serving as lead arranger on the financing. The facilities under the credit agreement consist of a $250 million six-year revolving credit facility, a $350 million six-year term loan A facility and a $2,450 million seven-year term loan B facility, DaVita said in a statement.


The closing follows a Federal Trade Commission review of the acquisition that required, as a condition for approval, for DaVita to divest 70 of its 706 outpatient facilities.


DaVita will have to divest 67 centers within 10 days of the close and another three centers within 60 days, according to FTC consent order released Tuesday. The company said it has agreements to sell the centers, most of which will be sold to dialysis provider Renal Advantage Inc. The transaction, which was put in motion on July 28, set the purchase price for the centers at around $320.5 million.


Also on Tuesday, Lansing, Mich.-based Attorney General Mike Cox announced his office has reached an antitrust settlement with DaVita and Gambro that allows the merger to move forward but requires the companies to divest five Michigan clinics to Renal Advantage. The move is meant to preserve competition in the state. In Michigan, DaVita operates 30 clinics, while Gambro has16 facilities statewide.


The Gambro deal creates the nation’s largest chain of dialysis centers, allowing DaVita to overtake Fresenius Medical Care AG of Germany, whose 84,600 U.S. customers made it the current largest provider of dialysis treatment. DaVita now serves around 94,000 patients at over 1,200 clinics in more than 40 states and the District of Columbia.



*Reporter Deborah Crowe contributed to this story.

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