Platinum Equity Takes Owens & Minor’s Product Unit Private as Owens & Minor Shifts to Accendra Health

Carve-out closed and a corporate reset for Owens & Minor (OMI)

Platinum Equity has completed its purchase of the products and healthcare services arm of Owens & Minor (OMI), a move that turns a large, integrated distributor into two focused businesses. The buyer will run the acquired unit as a private company, while Owens & Minor’s remaining operations — centered on supply-chain solutions — will adopt a new name: Accendra Health. The companies said the transaction is complete, but they did not disclose the purchase price or many of the deal’s financial details.

Deal mechanics: what was sold, what was kept and what we know (and don’t)

The transaction transfers Owens & Minor’s products and healthcare services business to Platinum Equity. That business includes product distribution, certain commercial services and related customer contracts that had been grouped under Owens & Minor’s product portfolio.

Owens & Minor will retain its remaining operations — primarily supply-chain and logistics services — and will move forward under the Accendra Health name. The rebrand signals a narrowed focus on logistics, clinical supply management and technology-enabled distribution services.

Both sides described the deal as a strategic separation, but neither disclosed the purchase price, specific financing arrangements, or the precise split of assets and liabilities. The companies also did not publish a detailed list of advisors in their announcement. Typical carve-outs include transition-service agreements to ease the handover of systems and customers; expect similar arrangements here, although the firms have not publicly shared that document.

From an ownership perspective, Platinum Equity now controls the products and healthcare services operations and will be able to run them outside of the public market. Owens & Minor shareholders remain owners of Accendra Health as a standalone public company (trading under OMI until any formal ticker change), while Platinum will own and operate the carved-out business as a private concern.

Why Platinum Equity bought the business: a private-equity playbook

Platinum’s purchase fits a familiar private-equity pattern: buy a focused operating unit from a larger corporate parent, tighten operations, and extract value through improved margins and bolt-on deals. For buyers of distribution businesses, the standard levers are the same — streamline logistics, centralize procurement, improve inventory turns, and use pricing discipline to boost profitability.

The products and services unit gives Platinum an established footprint in healthcare supply distribution — customers, supplier agreements and fulfillment capabilities that a private owner can reshape more quickly than a public company can. Expect Platinum to prioritize operational fixes that deliver cash quickly: warehouse consolidation, renegotiated supplier terms, tighter working-capital management and a push to cross-sell higher-margin services.

Growth moves are likely too. Once a private owner stabilizes margins, acquiring smaller regional distributors or technology-enabled services firms becomes easier. That combination — cost improvement plus targeted add-ons — is the usual route from carve-out to value creation.

Investor and market implications: what this means for shareholders and competitors

For Owens & Minor (OMI) shareholders, the split should make the remaining company easier to value. Accendra Health will be a purer-play logistics and supply-chain services firm; markets often pay a premium for clearer, focused business models. If Accendra can show steady, predictable cash flows, that could lift sentiment versus the prior, blended company.

But there are caveats. The lack of disclosed proceeds leaves open questions about how much capital Owens & Minor received and whether the company used any of that money for buybacks, debt paydown or investments. If the market suspects the proceeds were modest, the rebrand alone may not be enough to move the stock meaningfully.

For competitors and suppliers, a private-equity-owned rival tends to act faster on cost and price. That could intensify pressure on margins across the distribution sector, especially for smaller peers who lack scale. Conversely, the carve-out could spark consolidation if Platinum pursues bolt-on deals — a pattern that would favor larger, better-capitalized players.

Context: Platinum Equity’s track record and Owens & Minor’s repositioning

Platinum Equity is known for buying corporate carve-outs and turning them into focused, private businesses. The firm typically emphasizes operational change rather than deep strategic pivots: cost savings, management swaps and follow-on acquisitions are the usual toolkit.

Owens & Minor has been restructuring itself for some time, moving away from a sprawling distributor model toward a services-first posture. The Accendra Health name reinforces that shift: a narrower offering centered on logistics, clinical inventory management and supply-chain solutions that hospitals and health systems rely on.

What to watch next: milestones that will matter to investors

Investors and M&A pros should track several near-term items that can move markets:

• Any disclosure of the purchase price or proceeds and how Owens & Minor plans to use the cash.
• Details of transition-service agreements and how long Platinum will rely on Owens & Minor systems.
• Accendra Health’s first investor communications under the new name, including management changes and updated guidance.
• Operational metrics from both companies — margins, inventory turns and client retention — that reveal whether the carve-out and rebrand are proceeding smoothly.
• Signs of follow-on M&A by Platinum in the sector, which would indicate a consolidation push that could reshape competitive dynamics.

This combination of a private-equity takeover and a public-company rebrand is exactly the sort of corporate shake-up that creates near-term volatility and longer-term value shifts. For investors, the crucial question is whether Accendra Health can show clearer, steadier cash generation and whether Platinum’s hands-on plan for the products business produces faster profit recovery than the old, combined structure ever did.

Sources

• prnewswire.com