Mid Europa sells Alpha Medical to Apax's Unilabs

Mikkel Stern-Peltz
09 February 2017

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CEE-focused buyout firm Mid Europa Partners has sold Slovakia-based laboratory testing services company Alpha Medical to Apax Partners portfolio company Unilabs.

The deal is the first add-on acquisition by Swiss Unilabs since it was acquired by Apax Partners in December 2016 through an SBO from Nordic Capital and Apax France.

Mid Europa's exit comes just over four years after it bought Alpha from Penta Investments in October 2012.

According to a statement by the GP, Alpha Medical represents the largest healthcare sector transaction in central Europe since 2008, though some sources put the deal's EV around €370m – less than Mid Europa's 2012 €400m exit of Polish healthcare provider Lux Med and the €485m divestment of Euromedic's dialysis care division by BAML Capital Partners, Ares Life Sciences and Montagu Private Equity, according to unquote" data. However, the deal is the largest acquisition by a private-equity-backed company in the central European healthcare sector since the €800m buyout of Euromedic in 2008, unquote" data shows. Likewise, it is also the largest exit in Czech Republic and Slovakia since Mid Europa sold T-Mobile CZ for €828m in 2014.

Mid Europa partner and Warsaw co-head Pawel Padusinski said in a statement the GP had more than doubled the number of laboratory analyses performed by Alpha annually to 55 million in 2016, and grew the number of employees to more than 1,550 from 820 at the time of the acquisition.

During Mid Europa's ownership, Alpha Medical completed the add-on acquisition of Euromedic's Czech laboratory business, providing a partial exit of the medical service's owner, Montagu, in October 2013. According to the GP, it deployed more than €120m as part of Alpha's growth strategy, including capex for 27 bolt-on acquisitions.

Mid Europa's exit of Alpha Medical is expected to close in Q2 2017.

Previous funding
Tapping its Mid Europa Fund III, the GP acquired all the shares in Alpha Medical in October 2012, through an SBO from Amsterdam-headquartered private equity firm Penta Investments.

Penta had originally bought a majority stake in Alpha Medical in February 2006 as part of a management buyout.

Company
Headquartered in Bratislava, Alpha Medical is a laboratory services provider operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic.

The company employs a staff of 1,550 and performed more than 50 million analyses in 2016.

People
Mid Europa Partners – Pawel Padusinski (partner); Matthew Strassberg (co-managing partner); Viktoria Habanova (associate director); Przemyslaw Krenczyk (analyst); Filip Kisdobranski (associate).

Advisers
Vendor – Rothschild & Co (M&A); Sidley (legal); CMS Cameron KcKenna (legal); PwC (financial due diligence); EY (tax).