Brady Corporation has announced that it has acquired Precision Dynamics Corporation (PDC) from Water Street Healthcare Partners, in a cash transaction for $300 million. The transaction is subject to customary working capital and post-close adjustments.

PDC, with annual sales of approximately $173 million, is a producer of identification products primarily for the healthcare market, specializing in patient wristbands, specialty labels and identification systems used in hospitals to reduce medical errors and integrate and share patient data.

PDC, founded in 1956, is based in Valencia, CA, USA, and employs approximately 1,000 people globally. The company has manufacturing facilities in Tijuana, Mexico and Port Orange, FL, USA, and a European sales office with light manufacturing in Nivelles, Belgium. PDC’s healthcare wristband and label systems are used by many US hospitals and reach every touch point in the delivery of patient care, from admissions to discharge. According to the company, PDC’s products meet patient safety guidelines of The Joint Commission, FDA, AHA, and HIPAA. 

In addition to its primary focus on healthcare identification, PDC also offers wristband products for the leisure and entertainment industries and for crowd control and law enforcement utilizing technologies including RFID, holograms and barcodes. PDC products are sold through a direct sales force, distributors and system integrators.

“The acquisition of PDC, a leader in the US healthcare identification space, provides an important anchor position for Brady in the attractive healthcare market and fits well with our mission to identify and protect premises, products and people, and our vision to be the market leader in all of our businesses,” says Brady President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Jaehnert. “PDC’s highly regarded management team comes with deep experience in the healthcare identification space and has been very successful in building PDC into the strong business that it is today. PDC’s large customer base, strong channels to market and broad product offering together with Brady’s laboratory and people identification products, deep materials and printer expertise, and global footprint, make this a very attractive business combination and provide a strong foundation to build upon PDC’s market leading position.”

Curt Selquist, an operating partner with Water Street and chairman of PDC states, “Over the last five years, we expanded and enhanced PDC’s product development and manufacturing capabilities, and significantly broadened its portfolio of identification products through strategic acquisitions. The sale of PDC to such a highly regarded market leader in identification solutions fulfills our mission of having PDC end up with a company that continues this mission of long-term profitable growth.”

Excluding one-time acquisition-related costs, Brady expects this acquisition to be slightly accretive to earnings per diluted share for the remainder of fiscal 2013, and $0.10 to 0.15 accretive to earnings per diluted share in the first full fiscal year. The non-recurring acquisition-related costs are expected to include a one-time, non-cash tax charge of $25 to 30 million related to the repatriation of cash to the US in financing this acquisition and $8 to 12 million of other acquisition-related expenses.