Tornier: Building an Extremities Play in Orthopedics

For executives from global private equity firm Warburg Pincus and venture firm The Vertical Group, their first meeting with French orthopedics company Tornier Holdings SAS was far from auspicious. Introduced to the company by investment bankers at Brown Brothers Harriman, Sean Carney and Dick Emmitt, principals at Warburg Pincus and Vertical Group, respectively, flew to Paris in June of 2005 for an introductory meeting with Alain Tornier and his business advisor.

Both investors had heard of Tornier but didn't know much about the company. "It was on our radar screen, but barely," recalls Carney. Tornier, for its part, wasn't conducting an auction, but over the previous several years it had been approached by some of the large orthopedics implant companies about an acquisition and was, with the help of an advisor at Brown Brothers, exploring its options. The investment that both Warburg Pincus and The Vertical Group had jointly made years ago in Wright Medical Group Inc