LabCorp Unaware of Leveraged Buyout Plans

Laboratory Corporation of America says that it has no knowledge of reported plans by private equity firms to effect a leveraged buyout of the firm. Mergermarket, a mergers and acquisitions information provider, reported yesterday that a consortium of private equity firms was looking to acquire LabCorp and take it private. Mergermarket listed TPG Capital and Bain Capital as having the resources to do such a deal.

LabCorp has a market capitalization of around $8.5 billion.

"The report does not surprise us considering we have long thought that LabCorp might be a target because of its strong free cash flow generation and relatively stable business," Wells Fargo Securities analyst Gary Lieberman tells Reuters.

"The company has no knowledge of any such plans and is not in current discussions with any firms to effect such a transaction," LabCorp says in a statement.

A couple of weeks ago, LabCorp reported second-quarter revenue growth of just 1 percent to 1.42 billion. It missed Wall Street's consensus estimate on the top line. Since then, its shares have fallen around 5 percent. In late morning trade Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange shares of LabCorp were up around 3 percent at $87.02.