Terms keep improving in deal for Chaska-based Lake Region Medical

It's been a good week at Lake Region Medical, the Chaska medical components maker being acquired by Accellent Inc. of Massachusetts.

The price paid for closely held Lake Region Medical is expected to be slightly larger than the $390 million that Accellent disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The additional value will be the amount of cash on Lake Region Medical's books at closing, although the exact amount won't be known until the deal is signed, said a spokeswoman for Faegre Baker Daniels, the Minneapolis law firm representing Lake Region Medical in the transaction.

Accellent told the SEC it is paying $315 million in cash and $75 million in stock for Lake Region Medical, which makes guide wires that are inserted through an artery and used to guide into place devices such as stents, which help keep arteries open. The business aligns with Accellent's main business: making catheters.

In addition, Lake Region Medical will be the surviving company, at least in name. While Lake Region Medical will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Accellent, the merged companies will do business mostly under the name Lake Region Medical, according to Accellent's SEC filing. The sole exception will be the Massachusetts firm's Advanced Surgical unit, which will continue to use the Accellent name.

What's more, all of Lake Region Medical's 1,700 employees will remain with the merged companies, although it remains unclear whether the firm's family-run management team will remain in place. Lake Regional Medical CEO Joe Fleisch­hacker Jr. is the son of the late Joe Fleisch­hacker, who started the firm in 1947.