Nipro Diagnostics Inc.'s acquisition by China-based Sinocare Group was headed to the finish line when it suddenly looked like the deal could be upended.
At 8 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 7, four hours before the scheduled closing, "we caught word the Chinese stock exchange was experiencing a steep selloff and trading was halted," said Greenberg Traurig corporate and securities shareholder Matthew Miller. "We were nervous for the next four or five hours."
But the nearly $273 million sale was completed because of some good fortune. The transaction was all cash, and Sinocare and its affiliates had the money to complete the acquisition. They also had Chinese regulatory approval to use cash to buy Nipro.
"That helped us get through the closing even though (Sinocare's) stock wasn't trading in China," Miller said.
Now that the deal is done, Fort Lauderdale-based Nipro Diagnostics has a new name, Trividia Health Inc. The manufacturer of diabetic testing supplies will maintain its local operations under the continued leadership of CEO and president Scott Verner and his management team.
The company, which supplies glucose monitoring systems to Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and many independent pharmacies, was known as Home Diagnostics Inc. when it was acquired by Osaka, Japan-based Nipro Corp. in 2010. Over the next few years, Nipro Diagnostics invested $100 million in real estate and manufacturing operations in Broward County, according to the Sun Sentinel.
Miller, administrative shareholder for his firm's Fort Lauderdale office, represented Home Diagnostics before it was acquired and taken private by Nipro and then continued to do corporate and intellectual property work for the Nipro subsidiary.
Other members of the Greenberg Traurig team involved in the recent sale are corporate and securities shareholder Matthew Robbins and corporate and securities associate William Stein, also in the Fort Lauderdale office, and IP shareholder David Dykeman in Boston, co-chair of the firm's life science and medical technology group.
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