CVC's Elsan to bolt on MédiPôle Partenaires

CVC did not comment on whether it provided additional funding for the transaction.

The merger comes two years after CVC acquired Elsan, then known as Vedici, in a secondary buyout from 3i. The deal saw lenders providing a debt package to finance the deal worth up to €400m, including around €250m of senior debt.

3i and Nixen purchased a combined 65% stake in Vedici in 2010, which gave the firm an enterprise value of €200m. 3i secured 55%, while Nixen acquired 10% and the founding directors Jérôme Nouzarède and Michel Bodkier retained the remaining 35% with the management team. The deal saw Apax France and its listed vehicle Altamir Amboise sell the 40% stake in the firm they had purchased in January 2006. Debt for the transaction was led by Natixis and was rolled over from the 2006 transaction.

Bridgepoint has been invested in MédiPôle since 2011, when it took a majority stake in the OBO of French clinics operator Médipôle Sud Santé. Enterprise value was in excess of €200m and Bridgepoint invested through Bridgepoint Europe IV, an FCPR vehicle that closed on €4.8bn in 2008; an additional €50m was also earmarked for further investments in the company. 

In April 2014, Bridgepoint supported Médipôle Sud Santé in the acquisition of Médi-Partenaires, a French private hospital group, from LBO France and Equistone. The deal saw Bridgepoint, Médipôle CEO Marcel Hermann and the company's management acquire Médi-Partenaires from LBO France and Equistone to merge the business with Bridgepoint portfolio company Médipôle. The newly combined group had revenues reaching €830m.

In July this year, BPI France invested €95m in MédiPôle Partenaires, joining Bridegpoint in the pool of investors. As part of the deal, Bridgepoint increased its stake in the group by taking over the shares of former MédiPôle Sud Santé CEO Marcel Hermann.

Companies
MédiPôle was created in 2014 as a result of a merger between Médi-Partenaires, founded in 1990, and Médipôle Sud Santé, founded in 2006. The business is headquartered in Paris. 

It is France's third largest private clinic with a turnover amounting to €866m. The group is currently based in four regions in France: Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées, Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie.

It has 63 branches under management, counts 9,000 staff and 2,500 practitioners, and catered to 1.1 million patients in 2015.

Founded in 2000 and based in Paris, Elsan operates in the private hospitals sector. It runs 80 clinics with 10,900 beds. Elsan employs 14,000 people, and claims to treat 1,200,000 patients each year.

Elsan's activity is primarily focused on medicine, surgery and obstetrics, with some clinics providing other offerings such as rehabilitation, homecare, radiology, dialysis and radiotherapy.

The business has a turnover of €1.2bn.

People
Bridgepoint Capital – Vincent-Gaël Baudet (director).
Elsan – Jérôme Nouzarède (CEO).  

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