PRA Health Sciences Inc. said its board of directors authorized a $500 million share repurchase program, effective immediately.
The buyback program will expire on Dec. 31, 2021.
The Raleigh, N.C.-based company also said KKR PRA Investors LP plans to sell 6,666,684 common shares of PRA Health in a secondary offering. KKR PRA Investors will receive all proceeds from the offer.
The secondary offering is expected to close on Sept. 6, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.
Further, PRA Health said, subject to completion of the secondary offer, it plans to repurchase from the underwriter — Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC — $300 million worth of common shares out of the 6,666,684 shares that KKR PRA Investors intends to sell. PRA Health will buy the shares back at the price at which the underwriter will buy the shares from KKR PRA Investors.
The share repurchase from the underwriter is expected to occur as the same time as the closing of the secondary offering, subject to conditions. However, the offering is not dependent on completion of the share repurchase.
PRA Health plans to fund the buyback with a $300 million incremental term loan under existing credit facilities.
The company said it anticipates that upon the completion of the secondary offering and the share repurchase, KKR PRA Investors will have disposed all its remaining common shares of PRA Health.
PRA Health Sciences provides outsourced clinical development services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
