Eye-Care Company Bausch & Lomb Files for IPO

Bausch & Lomb Corp. has filed paperwork for its initial public offering, nearly a year and half after its parent company, Bausch Health BHC -2.16% Cos., said it would spin off the eye-care company.

The company said it plans to raise $100 million in its IPO, a placeholder figure companies often use to calculate filing fees and is often changed. It didn’t disclose how many shares it intends to offer to the public, according to registration documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

In 2020, Bausch Health said it planned a spin off the fast-growing eye-care business from its core pharmaceutical operations. Bausch Health plans to sell Bausch & Lomb shares through its wholly owned subsidiary, which will retain all proceeds from the sale. Bausch Health will remain a majority owner of the new public company.

Founded in 1853, Bausch & Lomb is an iconic name in eye care. The company invented Ray-Ban sunglasses for military pilots and later introduced some of the first mass-produced soft contact lenses and contact-lens solutions.

The company now sells a variety of products, including eye-surgery devices and contact lenses.

Bausch & Lomb made $2.76 billion in revenue in the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2021, and $131 million in profit. In 2020, it generated $3.41 billion in revenue and in 2019, it had $3.78 billion.

The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BLCO.

Bausch Health, formerly Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, has been working to move beyond a period when its drug-price increases and accounting were attacked, top executives were ousted, and its share price plummeted.

As part of its makeover, it dropped the Valeant name in 2018.

Valeant, under then-Chief Executive Michael Pearson, bought the Bausch & Lomb business from private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC for $8.7 billion in 2013. Warburg Pincus had taken the firm private in 2007 for $3.7 billion.

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Write to Kimberly Chin at [email protected]