Cardinal Health's $6.1 billion deal includes Crystal Lake facility

CRYSTAL LAKE – Cardinal Health Inc. has a deal to buy part of Medtronic PLC's patient monitoring and recovery unit for $6.1 billion, including its 500,000-square-foot Crystal Lake manufacturing facility.

If approved by regulators, the deal could close in the first quarter of 2018, according to announcements Tuesday from Cardinal Health and Medtronic.

A Medtronic spokesman confirmed that the Crystal Lake facility was part of the agreement.

Medtronic is one of McHenry County’s largest employers, with about 500 employees at its plant at 815 Tek Drive.

Medtronic bought Dublin-based Covidien for $42.9 billion in cash and stock during a wave of inversions in 2014. The Tek Drive facility in Crystal Lake makes sharps disposal containers and syringes.

The plant and its product line have been a staple in Crystal Lake for decades. Sage Products established the plant in 1991, and Covidien acquired the sharps disposal business from Sage in 1999.

The plant added a 38,000-square-foot processing room for a syringe product line in 2013 and hired about 100 more employees at that time.

The Crystal Lake plant is one of 17 manufacturing facilities included in the deal, according to a news release from the two companies.

“We are thrilled about today’s announcement, as this well-established product line is complementary to our medical consumables business and fits naturally into our customer offering. For this reason, this product portfolio has been on our radar for many years,” Cardinal Health chairman and CEO George S. Barrett said in a statement. “We distribute some of these products today and have been collaborative partners with the leadership of this business.

“Given the current trends in health care, including aging demographics and a focus on post-acute care, this industry-leading portfolio will help us further expand our scope in the operating room, in long-term care facilities and in home health care, reaching customers across the entire continuum of care.”

Shares of Cardinal Health ended the day at $72.39, down 11.54 percent. Medtronic stock fell 3 cents to close at $80.33.

Cardinal Health Inc. is a global, integrated health care services and products company with with more than 40,000 employees in nearly 60 countries.

It is among the top 25 on the Fortune 500.