Globus Medical Plans to Go Public

Globus Medical Inc., an Audubon, Pa.–based spinal device company, has submitted its S-1 form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the first step necessary in becoming a publicly-traded firm.

Why do companies decide to go public? And, more specifically, why is Globus Medical deciding to do so? In an initial public offering , a company gains an influx of capital from the mass sale of its shares. In its filing, Globus leaves its options wide open with regards to how it will use this anticipated capital:

“We intend to use the net proceeds received by us from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, including further expansion of our sales and marketing efforts and continued investments in research and development,” Globus Medical’s SEC document states. “We do not have any specific uses of the net proceeds planned, nor have we determined the amounts that we will actually spend on those uses.”

Globus paid a $1 million fine in February to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing a product without approval. The FDA apparently did not okay the company’s NuBone Osteoinductive Bone Graft product because it was not substantially equivalent to similar products already on the market.

Globus does not specify a price for its shares in the S-1 form. The company hopes to trade under the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ticker symbol GMED. Normal wait times between the initial filing of an S-1 (the form a company needs to announce its intent to go public) and actually becoming a public company is about 10 weeks.