Medline Industries priced its initial public offering at $29 a share, raising $6.26 billion in the largest US IPO in four years and valuing the medical-supplies maker at about $54.5 billion.
The company’s shares are set to begin trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq under the ticker MDLN.
The offering ranks among the biggest US stock-market debuts in recent years. Only three IPOs have raised more than $5 billion in the past five years, according to data compiled by Dow Jones Market Data, including electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc., which raised $13.5 billion in 2021.
Medline, which supplies hospitals and healthcare providers with hundreds of thousands of products ranging from surgical kits to the baby blankets used in US delivery wards, is majority owned by funds managed by Blackstone Inc., Carlyle Group Inc. and Hellman & Friedman. The private-equity firms acquired the business from the founding family in a leveraged buyout in 2021 that valued the company at more than $30 billion.
In its regulatory filings, Medline said it had received indications of interest for as much as $2.4 billion of shares from investors including Durable Capital Partners, Janus Henderson Investors, Viking Global Investors and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. A vehicle controlled by the founding family, which retains a minority stake, plans to purchase up to $250 million of shares.
Investor demand will be closely watched given Medline’s debt load following its period of private-equity ownership. As of late September, the company had net debt of about $15 billion, equivalent to 4.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. By comparison, no healthcare company in the S&P 500 has a net-debt-to-Ebitda ratio above 3.8, according to FactSet.
Medline plans to use IPO proceeds to reduce leverage. Total debt is expected to fall to about $12.8 billion after the offering from $16.8 billion, with management targeting a net-debt-to-Ebitda ratio below three.
The company has reported more than 50 consecutive years of annual net sales growth and expects high single-digit growth to continue. Net sales rose 10.3% in the first nine months of 2025 compared with a year earlier, while adjusted Ebitda increased 4.4% over the same period. Revenue totaled $20.6 billion and adjusted Ebitda was $2.7 billion in the first nine months of the year.
Founded in 1966, Medline was briefly publicly traded in the 1970s before being taken private in 1977. Its 2021 buyout followed supply-chain disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic that underscored vulnerabilities in the healthcare system.
After the IPO, Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman will each hold 17.4% of Medline’s voting power, alongside a 17.4% stake controlled by the founding family.
