Big Deals: New Indiana public companies top the 2001 list.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Special Feature

In the game of mergers and acquisitions, Indiana came out on the losing end again in 2001. Of the state's 25 biggest deals, the acquirer was from elsewhere in 10 of the transactions, while only five of the target companies were from out of state.

But the news wasn't all bad. Particularly noteworthy were the additions of three prominent Indiana names to the ranks of public companies, through a spin-off, a demutualization and an initial public offering.

Topping the 2001 list of big deals was the spin-off of Warsaw-based Zimmer Inc., a maker of orthopedic implants that records annual sales of about a billion dollars. What was a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb ventured out on its own in August. Bristol-Myers Squibb shareholders received a share of the new Zimmer Holdings for every 10 Bristol-Myers shares they owned, with the value of the deal pegged at $5.8 billion. Zimmer Holdings trades on the New York Stock Exchange.

The year's second-biggest deal also created a new public company. Indianapolis-based health insurer Anthem Inc. in November completed the process of demutualization, shifting from mutual ownership to the New York Stock Exchange. The deal involved an initial public offering of common shares along with an offering of equity security units, and also awarded stock to many of its nearly 8 million policyholder/owners. The complex deal was valued at $2.1 billion.

The other major new public company is Galyan's Trading Co., a sporting goods retailer based in Plainfield. The company, which had been a part of The Limited Inc. for a few years before management took it private in 1999, filed for its IPO in March and began trading on the Nasdaq in June. Proceeds were about $124 million, making it the state's ninth-biggest deal of 2001.

Mergers and acquisitions made up the rest of the list of big Indiana deals in 2001. Third on the list was the acquisition of the Fort Wayne-based reinsurance operation of Lincoln Financial Group. The buyer was Zurich-based Swiss Re, a $15 billion company that is one of the world's largest reinsurers. Value of the deal, which closed in early December, was $2.0 billion.

The No. 4 deal saw an Indiana company on the buying end. Dow AgroSciences of Indianapolis acquired the agricultural-chemicals business of Philadelphia-based Rohm and Haas Co. The $1.0 billion deal, completed in June, brought Rohm and Haas' fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and related business into Dow's portfolio and is expected to...