The final piece of Bausch Health’s planned three-way split is falling into place: after declaring last August it would spin out its aesthetics device division, the company has now filed for Solta Medical to go public.
Over the past year and a half, Bausch Health—formerly known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals before changing its name in 2018—had outlined a road map to break up its businesses. In the past month that strategy has come more into focus.
In addition to Solta, the company’s major eye health subsidiary Bausch + Lomb will hold its own IPO, as detailed in January during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Bausch Health will take over the company’s remaining multibillion-dollar drug portfolio and continue on as Bausch Pharma.
Solta, holder of a $300 million division of dermatology-focused lasers and other hardware, has now filed its paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list on the Nasdaq. The pricing terms for the offering have not yet been determined, the company said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Bausch + Lomb—with its contact lenses, eye surgery equipment and ophthalmic drugs bringing in $3.4 billion in 2020 sales—is also in a holding pattern after filing for its offerings on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange, with a placeholder target of $100 million.
The company is “actively monitoring market conditions to determine the paths forward,” according to the statement, which said Bausch Health has completed all internal preparations for the launches.
Bausch Health Chairman and CEO Joseph Papa will serve as chief of the Bausch + Lomb eye care business going forward, while President Thomas Appio will helm Bausch Pharma. Solta’s CEO will be its current leader, Scott Hirsch, formerly Bausch Health’s chief strategy officer.
The split will cap off a yearslong, multiphase plan to redirect the company. In that time Bausch Health has divested about “$4 billion of noncore assets, paid down over $8 billion of debt, resolved numerous legacy legal issues and managed a loss of exclusivity on an approximately $1.4 billion product portfolio while also investing in R&D, new product launches and core franchises,” Papa said in a 2020 statement.