Liberty Dialysis Holdings, a Mercer Island company that operates 260 dialysis clinics across the country, has entered into an agreement to be sold to Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care for $1.7 billion. Liberty Dialysis, which merged with Renal Advantage last year to become the third largest operator of dialysis facilities in the U.S., has annual sales of about $1 billion.

Founded by Mark Caputo nearly a decade ago, the company raised cash from Ignition Partners, Bain Capital and KRG Capital. Fresenius previously had invested $300 million in Renal Advantage.

The investment from Bellevue-based Ignition was a bit unusual at the time, since it had previously focused efforts on early-stage technology companies. Liberty is a portfolio company of Ignition Capital, an affiliate fund of Ignition Partners which focuses on larger private equity-style deals.

In a statement, Caputo said that working with Fresenius Medical Care “clearly gives us an opportunity to create a superior platform for innovation in the delivery of services and products.”

In addition to Liberty Dialysis, Fresenius Medical said it has agreed to buy American Access Care Holdings for $385 million.

Fresenius Medical, with 77,081 employees, today reported quarterly revenue of $3.2 billion on net income of $481 million.

The acquisition of Liberty Dialysis — the latest in a string of large acquisitions — also includes the assumption of debt.

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