Teijin Buys Third U.S. HME Firm

TOKYO–Japanese firm Teijin Ltd. has chalked up its third U.S.
purchase this year, announcing its acquisition of Clifton,
N.Y.-based Home Therapy Equipment on Thursday.

Associated Healthcare Systems, the company’s U.S.
consolidated subsidiary, has bought all outstanding shares of Home
Therapy Equipment. CEO Donald White of Associated Healthcare,
Amherst, N.Y., which itself was bought by Teijin in January, will
double as CEO of the newly acquired firm.

Teijin said it expects synergies from the transaction because
Home Therapy Equipment operates in the eastern part of New York
where Associated Healthcare, which has 11 locations in the state,
does not.

In mid-June, Teijin completed its purchase of Bakersfield,
Calif.-based Braden Partners, which does business as Pacific
Pulmonary Services. With revenues of $133 million in 2007, the
giant respiratory firm has 100 locations with 1,000 employees
throughout the western United States.

Going forward, Teijin said, it will expand the U.S. market by
adapting business models from Japan and developing additional
synergies between AHS and Braden Partners. It is also eying
acquisitions in other regional markets where neither AHS nor Braden
Partners operates.

Teijin subsidiary Teijin Pharma Ltd. controls roughly 60 per
cent of the Japanese market for home respiratory equipment,
including oxygen concentrators and CPAP equipment.

Teijin is on a buying spree in the U.S. as it seeks to build a
foothold here, where the company estimates the market at $8 billion
to $10 billion dollars–about 10 times the size of Japan’s.