Ex-Schering honcho aims to power up Bauch & Lomb

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The new chief executive of Bausch & Lomb on Monday said the eye-care company's past financial woes have been stabilized and he aims to build its three main businesses through "tuck-in" acquisitions and overseas expansion.

Brent Saunders, 40, headed Schering-Plough Corp's consumer healthcare division and sat on its executive committee before the drugmaker was acquired last year by Merck & Co. During his six-years at Schering-Plough, Saunders managed its integration of Organon BioSciences, a Netherlands company acquired for $16 billion in 2007.

He said he plans to "power up" Bausch & Lomb as it heads into its 158th year of business, with an assist from former Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan, who on Monday was named chairman of Bausch & Lomb's board of directors.

"It's very comforting to know that I have a mentor like Fred as chairman of the board. He will provide his wisdom on strategic thinking and looking at the big picture for us," Saunders said, although Hassan is not expected to have day-to-day involvement with company operations.

Bausch and Lomb, previously traded on the New York Stock Exchange, was acquired for $4.5 billion by private equity firm Warburg Pincus in late 2007.

The eye-care company, which had global sales of more than $2 billion that year, had become a scourge of Wall Street because of product recalls, endless big charges and restatements of earnings.

Saunders said Gerald Ostrov, who on Monday retired as chairman and chief executive of Bauch & Lomb, has stabilized the company in recent years and built a platform for future growth.

Private equity firms typically invest in firms and sell them or take them public three to five years later, returning the profit to the investors in their funds.

Asked if he plans to take Bausch & Lomb public again, Saunders said, "My mandate is to build long-term value in the company; if that sometime down the road leads to an initial public offering, so be it."

Saunders cautioned that IPOs "sound like magical events, but can be a bad thing for companies if they take place at the wrong time. So the best thing now is to focus on innovation and market expansion, to become the best in our peer group."

During an interview just an hour and a half into his new job, Saunders said he will focus on building up B&L's three main businesses -- contact lenses and solutions, prescription eye medicines and surgical equipment and intra-ocular lenses -- rather than venture into new areas.

The company's biggest competitors are Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), Alcon Inc ACL.N and Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N), which last year acquired Advanced Medical Optics and its array of surgical equipment and contact lens solutions for $2.8 billion.

Saunders said growth will hinge largely on innovative new products, including more comfortable and effective materials for contact lenses and implanted lenses, such as those used for patients undergoing cataract surgery.

Bausch & Lomb, although privately held, has ready access to capital for acquisitions and won't be shy about going after "tuck-in" acquisitions that complement existing product lines, he said.

His dealmaking experience at Schering-Plough, and globalizing the company's consumer healthcare business, will come in handy at Bausch & Lomb, Saunders predicted.

More than half of B&L's revenue comes from overseas, and that percentage will likely grow as the company forges more deeply into fast-growing economies like Brazil, where he said a growing middle class is creating "great dynamics for eye health."

"People tend to care a lot about their eyes."

(Additional reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by Bernard Orr)