Integer acquired by KKR

KKR agreed on 3 August 2026 to acquire Integer Holdings in an all-cash take-private, at an enterprise value of $5.7bn. Shareholders were to receive $127 per share, a premium of 51.8% to the closing price of 29 April, the day before the company announced a strategic review, and of 28.8% to the thirty-day average to 31 July. The board approved the agreement unanimously after that review, in which it weighed a range of alternatives. Completion was expected by the end of the year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, after which the shares were to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Integer designs and manufactures medical devices on behalf of the companies that sell them. Its customers are device makers in cardiac rhythm management, where it builds the pacemakers and defibrillators implanted in patients, in neuromodulation, where it makes the stimulators used against pain and neurological conditions, and in cardiovascular surgery, where it produces catheters, guidewires and delivery systems. It develops those products with its customers and then manufactures them at scale, under the Greatbatch Medical and Lake Region Medical names, employing around 11,000 people from its base in Plano, Texas. Outsourcing of this kind is difficult to reverse. A device approved by regulators is approved with its manufacturing process and its site, and moving production means revalidating both, which takes years. That is what makes the contracts long and the customer relationships durable, and what attracted a buyer paying a premium of more than half. KKR invested through its core private equity strategy, which holds assets over longer periods than conventional buyout funds, funding the purchase with equity from its own funds and committed debt, with no financing condition. It intended to set up an employee ownership programme after closing, as it had at more than 90 portfolio companies since 2011. Goldman Sachs advised Integer, with Davis Polk & Wardwell as legal counsel, while Centerview Partners, Barclays, Citi and Raymond James advised KKR, with Kirkland & Ellis as counsel. Citi, KKR Capital Markets, Barclays, UBS and Jefferies arranged the debt financing.

As a reminder, Integer had previously acquired Oscor in 2021 as part of its expansion strategy.