Waterland sells whole stake in listed Arseus

The 8.36 million shares were sold at around €35 apiece, according to Belgian reports, meaning Waterland raised somewhere in the region of €293m through the private placement.

Trading of Arseus stock was suspended yesterday (8 April) prior to the announcement of Waterland's share sale. Shares were trading at a price of €38.2 at market close on Tuesday (7 April).

The company currently has a market cap of €1.1bn. It is listed on the Euronext Brussels and Amsterdam exchanges under the ticker "RCUS".

Waterland had originally planned to sell a 20% stake, but subsequently upped the amount to its entire shareholding in the company.

The GP acquired its stake in Arseus through two private-investment-in-public-equity deals in 2009 and 2010. In November 2009, Waterland paid €62.6m for a 25.1% stake in the listed company, comprising the purchase of 7.5 million shares from Omega Pharma and 330,000 shares from Couckinvest at a price of €8 per share via Waterland's fourth fund. Dexia Group provided a mezzanine facility for the transaction.

In July 2010, Waterland increased its stake through the purchase of a further 163,177 shares for €1.54m.

Company
Arseus is made up of three divisions: pharmaceutical compounding unit Fagron; Corilus, a provider of IT solutions for medical specialists; and HL Technology, which develops precision components and orthopaedic tools for the dental and medical sectors.

Founded in 1998 and floated in 2007, Arseus is headquartered in Waregem with a Dutch office located in Rotterdam. The company employs 2,500 staff and generated revenues of €386.1m in 2013, down from €547m in 2012.

People
Gerardus van Jeveren is the CEO of Arseus.

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