A Boston firm is offering to buy the Quebec company specializing in medical instrumentation OpSens.
Founded in 2003 and located in the Technology Park in Quebec, OpSens obtained authorization last year from the United States Food & Drug Administration for the marketing of its SavvyWire guidewire in aortic valve replacement procedures with catheter.
At $2.90 per share, the American Haemonetics’ proposal represents a 50% premium over OpSens’ stock price at the close of trading last Friday.
OpSens shares ended the week at $1.93 on Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, giving the company a market value of just over $220 million. Two years ago, OpSens shares peaked at over $3.70.
The six analysts who officially follow OpSens all recommended buying the stock before the deal was announced. Their average target price over a 12-month horizon is $3.54, the equivalent of an 84% appreciation compared to the stock price recorded when markets closed last Friday.
Haemonetics, whose shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is a healthcare and medical products company with a market capitalization of almost five billion US dollars.
The SavvyWire guidewire from OpSens is presented as a unique 3-in-1 solution to deliver a prosthetic aortic valve, provide continuous pressure measurement during the procedure, and provide ventricular stimulation that does not require auxiliary or venous access devices.
“The integration within Haemonetics should provide OpSens products with access to a world-class sales network,” comments OpSens CEO Louis Laflamme.
The directors and officers of OpSens control nearly 5% of the shares and support the transaction.
Analyst Justin Keywood, of the firm Stifel/GMP, recently highlighted in a research note that SavvyWire opens the doors to a market that could allow OpSens sales to increase from 35 to 100 million by 2025. .
He mentioned in particular that SavvyWire does the work of several products by reducing the duration of medical procedures.
According to observers, the recent approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration mitigated the level of risk associated with OpSens, which increased the likelihood of the Quebec company becoming an acquisition target for a large medical device company .
In the past, when patients had aortic valve problems, cardiologists would perform open heart surgery. “They opened the rib cage and went directly to work on the heart. The recovery period is long after such surgery. Catheter methods were developed to replace valves and that is when the catheter replacement procedure gained popularity,” OpSens CEO Louis Laflamme explained to La Presse last year.
The number of transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures is expected to double to exceed 400,000 worldwide in 2025 and more than 600,000 in 2030 due to the aging population and studies demonstrating its benefits for more people. of patients.
At 400,000 procedures, analyst Nicholas Cortellucci, of the firm M Partners, recently calculated that the value of the market would reach $10 billion.