Medline shares surge 30% worth $46B in Wall Streets biggest IPO of the year

Medline shares surged more than 30% in their hotly anticipated New York debut on Wednesday, valuing the medical supply giant at $46 billion in the largest US initial public offering since Rivian’s 2021 listing, capping a strong year for new listings and fueling optimism for 2026.Shares of the company opened at $35, compared with its IPO price of $29 per share.The medical supplies maker and distributor — acquired for $34 billion in 2021 by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman in one of the largest leveraged buyouts of all time — sold 216 million shares to raise $6.26 billion in an upsized offering, making it the largest private-equity-backed IPO ever.“We’re going to run the business exactly the same way we ran it yesterday.It (the IPO) just allows us to buy down debt and amplify our voice,” said Medline CEO Jim Boyle.The company’s market debut also marks the largest IPO globally in 2025, surpassing Chinese battery maker CATL’s $5.3 billion Hong Kong offering in May, according to data compiled by LSEG.Northfield, Illinois-based Medline, founded in 1966 by brothers Jon and Jim Mills, is a key manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies such as surgical kits, gloves and gowns used by hospitals worldwide.The company, which competes with McKesson and Cardinal Health, has posted net sales growth every year since its inception through economic cycles and the COVID-19 pandemic.While Medline sources and manufactures products in tariff-hit regions such as Asia, Boyle said the company owns 33 facilities, including 19 in the United States, and about half of its output comes from the US or North America.“We make things that cost pennies, not thousands of dollars, and having a robust, diverse geography that has primary, secondary and tertiary locations — from a manufacturing perspective — allows us the ability to shift locations to mitigate some of the tariffs,” Boyle added.Medline’s dominant position in branded medical equipmen...