Dermatology treatment company PhotoMedex Inc. (Nasdaq: PHMD; TASE: PHMD) has acquired laser vision treatment company LCA-Vision Inc. (Nasdaq: LCAV) for $5.37 per share in cash, or $106.4 million.
The Boards of Directors of both PhotoMedex and LCA-Vision have voted unanimously in favor of the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014. LCA-Vision's operations are expected to be accretive to PhotoMedex's cash EPS in 2014, excluding one-time, transaction-related items.
PhotoMedex CEO Dr. Dolev Rafaeli said, "The combination of these synergistic businesses holds potential for powerful financial leverage and profitable long-term growth by providing a platform to establish company-owned XTRAC Psoriasis and Vitiligo Centers of Excellence and clinical dispensing of Neova products in LasikPlus facilities.
PhotoMedex has been traded on the TASE it merged with Israel company Radiancy in 2011. The company has a market cap of $280 million.
Rafaeli added, "At PhotoMedex we have a proven ability to generate dermatology patient traffic, and now we will have the national footprint to scale-up those efforts in an immediate and meaningful way while bringing recurring reimbursed patient revenue and economies of scale to LasikPlus centers. We expect this to be transformational to our XTRAC business. On average, psoriasis patients are treated with XTRAC twice per week for three to six weeks, twice a year and over the course of many years. In contrast, the current LCA-Vision model has virtually no repeat business and is mostly a private-pay procedure. We believe that with minor modification to the layout of the LasikPlus clinics, the professional and technical LASIK staffs will be able to offer dermatology patients the same high level of care and customer service with only modest staffing increases and incremental training."
When completed, LCA-Vision will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of PhotoMedex.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 16, 2014
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