Potential Medline Sale Could Value Company At Up To $30 Billion

NORTHFIELD, IL — Medline Industries has hired Goldman Sachs to explore the possibility of a sale that could value the local family-owned business at as much as $30 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Journal reported major private equity firms are likely to be interested in bidding, although there is no guarantee that the company will be sold.

Sources told the paper an initial public offering or a minority investment are also among the possible outcomes.

Medline operates 20 manufacturing sites and 45 distribution centers across North America, offers 550,000 different products and does business in more than 125 countries, according to its website.

The Northfield-based medical supplier has 27,000 employees and had annual sales of nearly $14 billion in 2019, according to Forbes, which ranks it as the nation's 21st largest private company.

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The company has its roots in Chicago, where A.L. Mills founded a garment factory to make aprons for workers at the stockyards, according to a history of the firm. Its business expanded into surgeons' gowns and nursing uniforms, and the company also began distributing medical supplies ahead of World War II.

Mills' grandchildren founded Medline Industries in 1966 and took the company public in the mid-1970s before buying back the shares, according to the Journal. The son of one of Mills' grandchildren, Charlie Mills, has been CEO since 1997.

UPDATE: Private Equity Firms Buy Medline In $34 Billion Leveraged Buyout