PE Firms Trade WIRB-Copernicus for $3 Billion
Leonard Green & Partners, L.P won the auction to acquire WIRB-Copernicus Group (WCG) from Arsenal Capital Partners for $3 billion. The purchase value was originally reported in PE Hub Buyouts. WCG is a clinical services organization that enables biopharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations and institutions to accelerate the delivery of new treatments and therapies to patients. Arsenal will retain a stake in WCG. It acquired the company in March 2012 and led its recapitalization in August 2016 alongside other investors, including MSD Partners, the family office of Michael Dell. WCG has an estimated EBITDA of $175 million for 2019. WCG has been relatively quiet on the... Read More »
CROs Are Still Trending as Q4 Rolls On
In the first week of November, BioAgilytix Labs, LLC, a portfolio company of Riverside Partners, purchased Cambridge Biomedical. Both Cambridge and BioAgilytix are contract research organizations (CROs) that develop novel therapeutic biologics and biosimilars, specializing in large molecule bioanalysis. The transaction expands BioAgilytix’s global footprint and adds further capacity by joining Cambridge Biomedical’s CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited, and GLP-compliant facility with its GxP laboratories in Durham, North Carolina and Hamburg, Germany. It also gives BioAgilytix a total of 400 employees. The merger follows a busy October for CROs, in which five deals were reported, accounting for... Read More »
CROs and CDMOs are Still Selling Fast
This past week Permira, a global investment firm based in the United Kingdom, spent $2.4 billion for Cambrex Corporation (NYSE: CBM). Cambrex is a premier contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) in the small molecule space and provides drug substance, drug product and analytical services across the entire drug lifecycle. The $2.4 billion purchase price includes the company’s net debt, for 4.2x revenue and 16.3x EBITDA, represents a 47.1% premium to Cambrex’s closing price of $40.78 on August 6. The target reported a number of its own acquisitions recently, making the CDMO a more attractive buy. Cambrex acquired Halo Pharma in 2018 and Avista Pharma Solutions... Read More » Will Catalent’s Deal Launch the Next Wave of CRO M&A?
Contract research organizations (CROs), like contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), have been popular targets for private equity firms and strategic buyers for years. The deals seem to come in waves, and the healthcare M&A market may be in for a tsunami this year. In 2013, some 20 transactions for CRO/CDMO targets were announced, with some hefty price tags attached. Royal DSM paid $1.95 billion to buy Patheon. Other big deals that didn’t disclose prices came from KKR & Co. (NYSE: KKR), which acquired both PRA International and ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services that year. CRO deal volume rose a little in 2014 (27 deals), then ebbed in 2015 (11 deals). The... Read More » Charles River Laboratories Purchases France-based Citoxlab
Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE: CRL), a global early-stage contract research organization (CRO), announced it has purchased the French non-clinical lab Citoxlab. Based in Evreux Cedex, France, the target specializes in regulated safety assessment services, non-regulated discovery services, and medical device testing. The deal cost Charles River $510 million, roughly 13.8x EBITDA for Citoxlab. The acquisition strengthens Charles River’s services in general and in specialty toxicology, preclinical medical device testing, non-regulated discovery solutions, and genomics research. The deal is expected to add $115-$130 million to Charles River’s 2019 revenue. On a trailing... Read More »