Kimberly-Clark to Buy I-Flow for $276M

DALLAS (TheStreet) -- Kimberly-Clark(KMB) agreed to purchase medical-device maker I-Flow(IFLO) in a deal valued at about $276 million, a move that Kimberly-Clark said would give its health-care division a portfolio of higher-margin products.

The maker of Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissue will buy all of I-Flow's outstanding stock for $12.65 a share (or $324 million in cash), an 8% premium to I-Flow's closing price of $11.76 on Thursday. The $276 million deal value excludes acquired cash and cash equivalents.

In morning trading Friday, I-Flow shares traded up to the tender-offer price on heavy volume.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and to modestly dilute Kimberly-Clark's earnings in 2009 and 2010. But it should begin to add to the bottom line in 2011, the company said.

The move will increase Kimberly-Clark's medical-device sales by more than 50%, the company added. I-Flow's flagship product is a kind of pump that injects local anesthetic near a patient's area of surgery. The Lake Forest, Calif., company has trailing 12-month revenue of about $137 million.

Earlier in the week, Kimberly-Clark purchased Baylis Medical's pain- management business for an undisclosed amount.

--Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

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