Baxter International Inc. said on Tuesday that it would buy privately held Swedish dialysis product company Gambro AB for about $4 billion to complement its kidney therapy portfolio. Baxter will finance the deal, which it valued at $26.5 billion Swedish kroner, with debt and cash. Baxter manufactures kidney dialysis equipment, drug infusion pumps and blood therapy products. The Gambro acquisition will round out Baxter’s renal business, which accounted for almost one-fifth of the company’s 2011 revenue of $13.89 billion. Gambro is one of the largest makers of equipment for hemodialysis, which is generally performed in a hospital or clinic. The dialysis from Baxter’s machines is called peritoneal and can be performed at home. The deal marks further consolidation in the kidney dialysis market, where Gambro and Baxter compete against rivals such as U.S.-based DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc and Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co KGaA. Analyst Kristofer Liljeberg of Sweden’s Carnegie investment bank said the Gambro deal would give Baxter the No. 2 clinical dialysis position, behind Fresenius. “I think in the longer term, the ambition is to try to challenge Fresenius,” Liljeberg said.
