EQT buys Curaeos from Bencis

Oscar Geen
13 October 2017

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EQT Partners has acquired pan-European dental care provider Curaeos from Dutch private equity firm Bencis Capital for an undisclosed sum.

The acquirer drew equity from EQT VII, a €6.75bn vehicle that held a final close in August 2015.

Bencis made the first acquisition in a buy-and-build strategy that led to the creation of Curaeos in July 2011 with the buyout of Tandvitaal.

EQT will continue the strategy started by Bencis with a focus on rollout in Germany. The GP has experience in this sector, having sold Swiss Smile to Jacobs Holding in June 2017 after doubling its revenues in four years.

The sell-side marketed Curaeos at €50m EBITDA and leverage was expected to be 6.5x this figure, according to a report by unquote" sister publication Debtwire. However, the report quoted buy-side sources that contested this figure, citing the unknown growth potential of the individual businesses as a point of contention.

Previous funding
Bencis acquired Tandvitaal for an undisclosed sum in July 2011. The GP drew equity for the buyout from its third fund, which held a final close on €375m in July 2007.

In March 2017, Curaeos acquired Italian dental chain Dentalcoop for an undisclosed sum. Dentalcoop generated a turnover of €67m in 2016, according to publicly available documents.

Two months later the GP made another bolt-on, acquiring the joint venture formed of Samenwerkende Tandartsen and Dentconnect. The two companies reported combined revenues of €54.4m for 2016.

Company
Curaeos is a dental group created by Bencis's buy-and-build strategy, starting with the acquisition of Tandvitaal in July 2011. The group's brands include Dentconnect and Dentalcoop, and it has more than 220 clinics in total. The company is headquartered in Oosterhout in the Netherlands and also has operations in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Italy. It projects EBITDA of €50m for 2017.

People
EQT Partners – Kristiaan Nieuwenburg (partner).
Curaeos – Jim Vermeule (CEO).