Database Firm IMS Health to Go Public

Pharmaceutical and life sciences database/analytics vendor IMS Health has filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct an initial public offering of stock with a preliminary goal of raising $100 million.


Pharmaceutical and life sciences database/analytics vendor IMS Health has filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct an initial public offering of stock with a preliminary goal of raising $100 million.

That figure is a placeholder number for now, and published reports say the firm could raise up to $1 billion. The number of shares being offered and price range has not been determined. The company intends to use the proceeds to repay a part of its long-term debt and for general corporate purposes, according to its announcement.

Financial firms J.P. Morgan Securities, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley lead the offering with additional participation from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities and Well Fargo Securities.

IMS Health’s databases hold more than 10 petabytes of unique data covering sales, prescription, promotional, medical claim, electronic health record and social media data. Included are more than 85 percent of the world’s prescriptions and 400 million comprehensive, longitudinal and anonymous patient records, according to the SEC filing. “We have a presence in over 100 countries, including the high growth emerging markets, and we generated 64 percent of our $2.44 billion of 2012 revenue from outside the United States.” The company had a $42 million net loss in 2012 with earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization of $764 million. Revenue in 2013 was up four percent during the first nine months.

The average length of IMS’ relationships with it top 25 clients is more than 25 years and the retention rate for its top 1,000 clients from 2011 to 2012 was 99 percent, according to the filing. Historically, 70 percent of revenue has recurred annually.

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