Carlyle Group Acquires Vitamin Company

NBTY Inc., the maker of Solgar nutritional supplements, agreed to be bought by the Carlyle Group for $3.8 billion in the biggest acquisition by a private- equity firm this year.

Carlyle will pay $55 a share in cash, Ronkonkoma, New York- based NBTY said in a statement today. That’s 47 percent more than the closing price of $37.47 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. NBTY’s other brands of vitamins and nutritional supplements include Nature’s Bounty, Rexall and MET-Rx.

Private-equity firms, returning to takeovers as economies recover, plan to invest a record $507 billion in cash raised before the collapse, London-based researcher Preqin Ltd. has said. NBTY has reported two years of falling profit and its stockwas down 14 percent this year before today’s announcement.

“This transaction delivers exceptional value to our shareholders,” Scott Rudolph, the company’s chief executive officer, said in the statement.

The purchase is the biggest announced leveraged buyout since IMS Health Inc. agreed to sell itself to investment funds managed by TPG and the CPP Investment Board for $5.2 billion in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The transaction has fully committed financing from Carlyle Partners V and external debt financing provided by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse, the companies said in the statement. Bank of America and Centerview Partners LLC are financial advisers to NBTY. Barclays Capital and Credit Suisse are advising Carlyle.

NBTY’s board has unanimously approved the takeover and recommended the offer to shareholders. The purchase should be completed by the end of 2010.

To contact the reporter on this story: Celeste Perri in Amsterdam at [email protected].