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Cardinal Health unloads stake in CareFusion for $706M

Pharmaceutical and medical products supplier Cardinal Health Inc. has sold its remaining stake in spinoff medical technology company CareFusion for $706 million.

Pharmaceutical and medical products supplier Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) has sold the remaining stake in its spinoff medical technology company for $706 million.

Cardinal sold 30.5 million shares, which represents about 14 percent of CareFusion Corp.’s (NYSE: CFN) outstanding shares, in a block trade to Morgan Stanley.

Based on the numbers in Cardinal’s regulatory filing that announced the sale, the Dublin, Ohio, company gave Morgan Stanley a discount for taking the shares off its hands. The sale price comes out to about $23.14 a share. But CareFusion closed at $24 the day prior to the Sept. 15 sale.

“It’s not uncommon to see a discount on a large block trade like this,” Troy Kilpatrick, a Cardinal spokesman,  said.

Cardinal spun off  San Diego-based CareFusion about a year ago to focus more intensely on its supply chain business. At the time, Cardinal retained about 19 percent of CareFusion’s shares, selling 10.9 million shares for $270 million in the fiscal year ended June 30.

Kilpatrick said the spinoff deal with CareFusion required Cardinal to unload all of its shares in the San Diego company within 5 years. Cardinal sold the shares because market conditions were right for it to find a buyer, he said.

CareFusion makes drug-delivery systems and infection-prevention tools. Last month, the San Diego spinoff said it would lay off about 5 percent of its workforce — 700 employees — due to declining profits.

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