CHICAGO, March 5, 2026, 12:59 CST
- Selling shareholders set the price for a secondary offering—75 million shares—at $41 apiece.
- Medline isn’t putting shares on the block and won’t collect any proceeds. The deal’s closing is set for March 10.
- Sellers include Blackstone, Carlyle, Hellman & Friedman, along with affiliates of ADIA.
Shareholders of Medline Inc. have set the price on a 75 million-share secondary offering at $41 apiece, valuing the transaction near $3.1 billion. The move hands Medline’s private equity owners another path to exit. 1
A secondary offering involves selling shares already in circulation—no new funds head to the company. Medline clarified: it’s not putting any of its own stock up for sale and won’t pocket any cash from the deal. Even so, investors keep an eye on these moves, since more shares in the market can bump up the float and weigh on the stock in the short run. 2
It’s been under three months since Medline’s Nasdaq debut, where the company unloaded around 248.4 million shares at $29 apiece, pulling in close to $7.0 billion net after underwriting. 3
Stockholders tied to Blackstone, Carlyle, Hellman & Friedman, and a unit of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are among those selling, according to the company. The underwriters secured a 30-day window to purchase as many as 11.25 million extra shares—a standard feature in equity offerings that could boost the total proceeds.
Medline named Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and J.P. Morgan as bookrunners on the deal, handling the order book and gauging investor demand.
Medline spent the week highlighting its expansion beyond public markets, unveiling a supply deal it signed back in December with Better Life Medical & Surgical Supply out of Florida. That company’s president and CEO, Sam Muminov, credited Medline with bringing “quality, reliability and supply continuity” to help back up their next-day delivery promises. Medline’s Renee Fisher, a senior vice president, called the new partnership “exciting” and said the company is eager to support Better Life’s work. 4
Medline’s business: medical-surgical products, plus supply chain services for hospitals, clinics, and a range of care facilities. The company is up against publicly traded distributors like Cardinal Health and Owens & Minor—their turf’s the same, and their healthcare logistics margins are just as tight.
When Medline went public, CEO Jim Boyle made it clear the IPO was about fortifying the company’s balance sheet, not shifting its day-to-day playbook. “We’re going to run the business exactly the same way we ran it yesterday,” he told reporters at the time. The main purpose, Boyle said: “just allows us to buy down debt and amplify our voice.” 5
Big secondary blocks often hang over the stock, particularly as early holders continue unloading shares into the market. Should appetite wane, the price risks slipping back toward the deal level, sometimes leaving the underwriters’ overallotment untouched.
The company said the offering should close on March 10, pending the usual closing conditions.
