Avaya, HCR Manorcare Join IPO Parade

Going public is all the rage for sponsor-backed companies in the technology and health care industries, according to sister news service Reuters.

Avaya Holdings Corp., a telecom equipment maker that is owned by Silver Lake and TPG Capital, became the latest in a rush of IPOs and filings by technology sector companies. The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company was taken private by Silver Lake Partners and TPG in 2007 for just over $8 billion.

It filed this month to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering. The $1 billion figure in the filing is used to calculate registration fees and the final size of the IPO could be different. The company did not specify the number of shares it hopes to sell, an expected price range, exchange or ticker symbol.

Avaya sells communications software, equipment and support services. In the six months ended March 31, it posted a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $615 million on revenue of $2.8 billion. Avaya estimates the total value of the markets it operates in will be worth about $77 billion in 2011, the company said in its S-1 IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Avaya said it would use proceeds from the IPO to repay some of its debt, redeem preferred stock and pay management termination fees to its sponsors. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are leading the underwriters on the IPO.

Meanwhile, The Carlyle Group plans to take HCR ManorCare public soon in an offering that could raise roughly $500 million, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The initial public offering, which would be the latest of several from sponsor-backed health care companies, could give the nursing home and assisted living facility operator an enterprise value, which includes debt, of up to $2 billion, one of the sources said.

The IPO should happen sometime after the Labor Day holiday in September, the source said. HCR ManorCare is expected to file its IPO registration paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within the coming month, the second source said. The sources requested anonymity because the information is not public. The plans are preliminary and could change. Carlyle and HCR ManorCare declined to comment.

Carlyle, one of the world’s most powerful private equity firms, bought HCR ManorCare for $4.9 billion in 2007, at the height of the leveraged buyout boom. In December, Carlyle sold most of HCR ManorCare’s real estate assets to HCP Inc. in a $6.1 billion sale and leaseback deal.

Carlyle, which has more than $106.7 billion under management, is expected to file for its own IPO in the third quarter.

Toledo, Ohio-based HCR ManorCare would be following other private equity-owned health care companies to the public markets. These deals could prove attractive to investors as concerns mount about a slowing U.S. economy. Health care companies like HCR ManorCare are often viewed as defensive investments because of the steady amounts of cash that they generate.

Hospital operator Vanguard Health Systems, controlled by Blackstone Group Inc., disclosed terms for a $550 million IPO.

In March, Nashville, Tennessee-based hospital operator HCA Holdings Inc., whose owners include Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., raised $3.8 billion in the biggest private equity-backed IPO ever in the United States. Since its IPO, HCA shares have risen nearly 13 percent.

(Clare Baldwin is a New York-based correspondent for Reuters news service; additional reporting Stephen Lacey and Megan Davies in New York, Susan Kelly in Chicago, and Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore.)