B&L to stay private for 5 years or more

Rochester, NY-Bausch & Lomb (B&L) bought by Warburg Pincus last October has a long-term growth plan and will not return to the public market any time soon, said Gerry Ostrov, chief executive officer, B&L.

"Nobody has given me a specific number, but something like this is probably somewhere north of five years. Certainly, we're not talking one or two years; we are talking five-plus," Ostrov said in an interview while visiting the UK. "At some time you want to recapture the value, but it's not something I think about when I get up in the morning,

"My personal objective is to get us going at a solid double-digit growth-not immediately, but I think that is an appropriate objective," he said.

According to Ostrov, most divisions of the businesses were little affected by the economic slowdown, but laser eye surgery was suffering, since patients have to pay for procedures costing several thousand dollars out of their own pockets.