Covidien Ltd, the former Tyco Healthcare, is eying to acquire a technology-based company to expand its presence after it was spun off from Tyco International.

The target size could be US$5 million to US$1 billion, depending on the opportunity available, Richard Meelia, its president and chief executive officer, said in Shanghai yesterday.

He made the remarks after an inauguration ceremony of its new plant in Shanghai, its only production facility in China that makes only respiratory equipment for use at home.

Meelia refused to disclose if any talks are going on. In the past two years the company has spent US$500 million on acquiring six firms, including a sales distributor in China. It has invested about US$30 million in China since entering the market in 2000.

The Bermuda-based company plans to triple the work force at the Shanghai factory in the next 18 months, which makes surgical instruments and other related equipment, and add on technical support and aftersale service. The 19,500-square-meter plant, operational since last month, employs about 90 people now.

Meelia expects Covidien, the world's second largest disposable medical product maker after Johnson&Johnson, to register a 10- to 12-percent sales growth in China over the next few years.

The expansion will be a bit slower than growth in the past three years when the figure was 20 percent, he said.