Henry Schein, Inc., one of the world's largest providers of health care and veterinary products to office-based dental, animal health and medical practitioners, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire an 80 per cent ownership position in privately-held Medivet SA, a leading distributor of animal health products and services in Poland, with a sales in 2012 of approximately $80 million.

Henry Schein expects the transaction to be dilutive to its earnings per share by approximately $0.01 in its initial year and accretive by $0.01-$0.02 in the following year. The transaction, subject to approval by Poland's competition and tax authorities, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Medivet serves approximately 2,200 animal health customers across Poland and has approximately 250 employees. Piotr Trojanek, chairman of Medivet's Supervisory Board, along with Karolina Brodziak, chairman of Medivet's Management Board, and other members of Medivet's management team will hold the remaining shares of the company.

"We are delighted to enter the Polish animal health market in a position of leadership and look forward to welcoming Medivet's highly regarded founder, Piotr Trojanek, and his colleagues to Henry Schein," said Stanley M Bergman, chairman of the Board and chief executive officer of Henry Schein. "With this expanded geographic reach, we anticipate providing additional value to our supplier partners while ensuring Medivet's customers have access to the widest array of supplies and value-added products for operating efficient and profitable businesses while delivering high-quality care."

The Medivet transaction will increase to 12 the number of European countries where Henry Schein's animal health business has operations. Medivet will provide a strategic base for expansion in Eastern Europe and the opportunity to work collaboratively with Henry Schein's existing businesses in the region, particularly in the Czech Republic.

"Henry Schein's superior track record for serving animal health practitioners has been demonstrated across Europe, North America and Australasia," said Trojanek. "Henry Schein has a clear commitment to set the standard for excellence in meeting the practice needs of veterinarians, and we look forward to drawing on these impressive global resources to build on the firm foundation that Medivet has built here in Poland."

Henry Schein currently serves veterinary customers in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Henry Schein's Global Animal Health business has annual sales of more than $2 billion.

Henry Schein, Inc. serves dental laboratories, government and institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care sites.