Looks Like Another Canceled I.P.O.Looks Like Another Canceled I.P.O.

There have been several Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation mergers that have been canceled because of unfavorable market conditions. Now it seems as if traditional IPOs are following suit.

Late last week, Bausch Health Companies, once known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals, said it was “suspending” a plan to pursue an IPO for its Solta Medical Aesthetics unit, despite the unit attracting significant investor interest.  

Solta is a powerhouse. The business has a $300 million portfolio of skincare and body contouring devices. For now, Solta will remain as part of Bausch Health and continue to contribute to the deleveraging of the company's balance sheet. The company will revisit alternative paths for Solta in the future.

"Solta is a valuable business with significant potential for market share gains and geographic expansion in the fast-growing medical aesthetics business," said Thomas Appio, CEO, Bausch Health. "I look forward to working with the team to drive Solta's continued growth and innovation."

Bausch sought to raise as much as $840 million in the Solta IPO. It was the second-largest IPO listing in the U.S. this year, according to a report from Bloomberg.

IPOs across industries have been struggling lately. A report from Reuters notes that Reddit Inc and Mobileye, the self-driving car unit of Intel Corp have faced some incredible challenges. The report said that Federal Reserve policy tightening and the war in Ukraine have caused some companies to rethink IPO strategies.

The groundwork for Solta Medical to become a public company was put in place earlier this year. Bausch Health said it would spinout three separate companies, which along with Solta Medical included, Bausch+Lomb eye health business and Bausch Pharma Global.

If all went well with the IPO, then Solta would have taken a route like Bausch + Lomb, which completed its IPO on the New York Stock exchange a few months ago. It should be noted that B+L had an IPO price of $18 per share significantly below the target of $21 to $24. The B+L IPO raised $630 million.

Solta would have also joined the ranks of two highly-publicized IPOs in the medtech space – Embecta and ZimVie.  

ZimVie, a spinoff of ZimmerBiomet that plays in the dental and spine market, went public in March. Embecta, which was a spinoff of Becton Dickinson & Company and plays in the diabetes market, went public in April.

The Let’s Talk Medtech podcast featured Vafa Jamali, ZimVie’s CEO on episode 34, and Devdatt Kurdikar, Embecta’s CEO, as a guest on episode 38.