This year, the largest-scale IPO in the US stock market is coming! Medical supplies giant Medline (MDLN.US) is making a big push to raise 5.37 billion US dollars.

Focus on medical consumables, the large American healthcare company Medline Inc. is seeking to raise up to $5.37 billion through an initial public offering (IPO) on the U.S. stock market. This will lay the foundation for one of the largest IPOs backed by private equity support in history, and will also be the largest fundraising IPO in the U.S. this year, possibly even the largest global IPO by 2025. According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, the Illinois-based healthcare company plans to issue 179 million shares of stock at a price range of $26 to $30 per share. The company's major shareholders include global private equity giants Blackstone Inc., Carlyle Group Inc., and Hellman & Friedman, and they have received commitments of around $2.35 billion from a group of "cornerstone investors." An official SEC document indicates that the valuation of this medical supplies manufacturer and distributor could reach as high as $55.3 billion. If priced within the IPO marketing range, Medline will easily become the largest IPO in the U.S. market this year, far exceeding the $1.75 billion offering completed by Venture Global Inc. in January. At the top end of the pricing range for the IPO, the fundraising amount will reach $5.37 billion, making it the largest global IPO of the year, surpassing the approximately $5.26 billion offering completed by Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology in the Hong Kong market at the time. The IPO transaction is expected to surpass the $4.35 billion fundraising IPO of HCA Healthcare Inc. in 2011, whose shareholders at the time included private equity firms KKR & Co. and Bain Capital. This submission of the U.S. IPO filing came after the longest federal government shutdown in history, which disrupted the IPO plans of several candidate companies, including Medline. The company had originally planned to go public in November. During the dispute, the company submitted materials to the U.S. Securities regulatory authorities, and the federal government shutdown dispute ended on November 12. According to the documents, Medline achieved a net profit of approximately $977 million and total revenue of about $20.6 billion in the nine months ending on September 27, compared to a net profit of $911 million and revenue of about $18.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. Who is Medline? The company's main business focuses on producing and distributing consumable medical supplies such as medical-grade gloves, isolation gowns/surgical gowns, and exam tables for use by professional hospitals and doctors. In 2021, Medline was privatized in a $34 billion deal by Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman, one of the largest leveraged buyouts in financial history. SEC documents show that the company submitted a confidential IPO application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in December last year, but tariff uncertainties led to a comprehensive delay in its listing plans in the first half of this year. Medline Inc. is one of the largest privately-owned medical and surgical consumables manufacturers and distributors in North America and globally. The company can be traced back to its medical textiles business in 1910 and was formally established as Medline in 1966. It is currently controlled by private equity funds such as Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman, with annual sales of over $20 billion and operations in over 100 countries and regions. Overall, Medline is a comprehensive platform supplier focused on "medical consumables + supply chain solutions," delivering hundreds of thousands of consumable medical products to frontline healthcare settings at various medical institutions through its own factories and extensive warehouse and distribution networks. Focusing on hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, surgical centers, doctor's offices, home care agencies, and retail channels, the company researches, produces, and distributes various medical and surgical supplies and related solutions, including but not limited to gloves, surgical and protective isolation gowns, dressings, wound care products, surgical and procedure packs, exam tables, disposable supplies, disinfection and infection control products, and also provides medical consumable supply chain management, clinical program support, and training services. The long list of cornerstone investors includes Baillie Gifford, Capital Group, Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global, Durable Capital Partners, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, Janus Henderson Investors, Viking Global Investors, and WCM Investment Management. Institutional data compiled indicates that the U.S. market has raised $38.7 billion in initial public offerings this year (excluding blank check companies). Even with the potential fundraising size of Medline, this total is expected to be slightly lower than the annual average fundraising size of nearly $50 billion before the COVID-19 pandemic. Wall Street's major investment banks hope that next year, by pushing for a number of portfolio companies they are involved in to go public, private equity firms will further boost the number of stock offerings and fundraising size. Medline was founded in 1966 by brothers Jon and Jim Mills. The Mills family remains the largest individual shareholder of Medline after this privatization transaction. According to a recently disclosed document, after this IPO transaction, the Mills family will hold 17.8% of the voting rights. Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman will each hold 18% of the voting rights after the IPO transaction. The document shows that members of the Mills family and their affiliates have expressed interest in subscribing to a maximum of $250 million worth of stock in this IPO. Since the private equity acquisition, the company has completed a management transition under the leadership of senior executive Jim Boyle. Boyle, who has been with the company for 28 years, is the first non-Mills family member to serve as CEO of Medline. In 2024, Medline acquired the surgical solutions business of Ecolab Inc. for approximately $905 million and invested $1.6 billion in capital expenditures in its distribution and distribution network over the past five years. According to the disclosure in the documents, Medline has over 43,000 employees worldwide. Insiders reveal that this major transaction is expected to be priced after the closing of the New York stock market on December 16th. A representative from Medline did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase are all fully involved in this offering, along with 21 joint bookrunners and 21 co-managers. Medline is expected to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "MDLN".