Wright Medical Closes Sale of its Large-Joint Business

On Jan. 9, Wright Medical Group Inc. closed the sale of its OrthoRecon business unit to MicroPort Scientific Corp., which means Wright has completely divested itself of its large-joint (hips and knees) replacement business and will focus its efforts on trauma and small-joint and bone technologies.

The deal, worth $290 million, was announced in June.

“With the divestiture of our OrthoRecon business, Wright’s transition to a high-growth, pure play global extremities and biologics company is complete,” said Robert Palmisano, president and CEO of Wright Medical. “We will now be able to devote our full resources and attention towards accelerating growth opportunities in this area, including improving sales productivity, extending the global reach and penetration of our products in key international markets, pursuing targeted new business development opportunities, and improving gross margin and EBITDA. We believe this will enhance our ability to create significant shareholder value.”

The transaction establishes MicroPort Orthopedics as the sixth-largest multinational hip and knee reconstruction company, with global headquarters in Arlington, Tenn. (which is where Wright is based). As a result of the acquisition, MicroPort now holds U.S. manufacturing, global infrastructure, logistics and operations in the top four global orthopedic markets, as well as established hip and knee franchise brands.

“This is an exciting transaction for the MicroPort Orthopedics team, our partners, our customers, our patients and the communities we operate in,” said Ted Davis, CEO of MicroPort Orthopedics said. “We will be building upon 60 years of innovative leadership in the hip and knee industry to grow our orthopedics business segment and establish MicroPort as a worldwide provider of effective and affordable orthopedics management solutions.”

MicroPort Orthopedic’s Arlington facilities are staffed by a workforce of nearly 600 employees from Tennessee and the surrounding area.

“Memphis is a long-standing center of the orthopedics industry with significant local infrastructure,” said Davis. “MicroPort Orthopedics will continue its deep commitment to making patient-preferred solutions and offering responsive service to the healthcare community.”

MicroPort Orthopedics will become the largest division of MicroPort Scientific Corp., a China-based medical device company that specializes in minimally invasive and other emerging medical technologies.

“MicroPort’s commitment to growth and research and development is the engine that drives our leadership position in the cardiovascular market in China today,” said Jonathan Chen, vice president of International Business & Investor Relations for MicroPort Scientific. “This philosophy extends to MicroPort Orthopedics as well as shareholders, patients and partners who can expect that our orthopedics business will be just as innovative.”