Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp., the maker of blood-plasma therapies that U.S. regulators blocked from being acquired in June, raised $950 million in the second-largest initial public offering in the U.S. this year.

Talecris, based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, sold 50 million shares at $19 each, according to Bloomberg data. The stock priced at the middle of the $18 to $20 range expected by the company. Private-equity firms Cerberus Capital Management LP and Ampersand Ventures, Talecris’s largest investors, put up 15.8 million more shares that raised another $300 million.

Talecris makes protein therapies derived from human blood plasma to treat immune deficiencies and disorders such as hemophilia. The biotechnology company’s main treatments, Prolastin and Gamunex, generated about 70 percent of revenue last year, when Talecris had net income of $65.8 million on $1.37 billion in sales, according to a Sept. 11 regulatory filing. The company had $116 million in earnings during the first half of 2009, the filing said.

“Talecris isn’t a great bellwether for biotechs because it is a much more mature business, with sales and profits well beyond typical venture-capital IPOs,” said Glen Giovannetti, head of Ernst & Young’s biotechnology group. “While biotechs are lining up to test the market, it won’t be a wide-open window for raising money.”

Managing the Sale

The sale was handled by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,Citigroup Inc.,JPMorgan Chase & Co.,Wells Fargo & Co.,Barclays Plc and UBS AG.

New York-based Cerberus and Wellesley, Massachusetts-based Ampersand retained a 60.5 percent stake in Talecris. The company plans to use proceeds from the IPO to pay debt, according to a Sept. 15 statement. Talecris spokeswoman Becky Levine declined to comment before the pricing was announced.

Shanda Games Ltd., which gained $1.04 billion when it was spun off from Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., is the only larger IPO in the U.S. thus far this year, according to Bloomberg data. Starwood Property Trust Co.’s IPO totaled $931.5 million and baby-formula maker Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. had the fourth-largest offering at $828 million.

CSL Ltd., a Melbourne-based maker of blood plasma products, dropped its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of Talecris in June after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said the deal would violate antitrust laws.

Prolastin and Gamunex are part of the $15 billion global plasma-product market where the company competes with the largest global supplier, Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter International Inc. Plasma constituents are also being studied for possible use with Alzheimer’s disease, said Rick Wise, an analyst with Boston-based Leerink Swann & Co.

Solid Performer

“The plasma-protein market is a very solid performer, particularly as new clinical indications are getting developed and emerging economies demand better health care,” Wise said. “It will continue to grow in the 8 to 10 percent range, possibly even better if the new markets live up to potential.”

Talecris, with 56 plasma-collection centers and two manufacturing facilities in the U.S., was created in 2005 by Cerberus and Ampersand after they bought German drugmaker Bayer AG’s plasma business for about $590 million.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pat Wechsler in New York at pwechsler@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 30, 2009 20:15 EDT