Antin to buy PE-backed Babilou

The deal gives the company an enterprise value of €1-1.5bn, which would equate to a valuation of 9-14x its 2020 EBITDA, according to press reports.

The company's founders, Rodolphe and Edouard Carle, will retain a minority stake in the business.

Minority shareholders TA Associates and Raise Investissement are understood to retain a minority stake, while Cobepa and Societe Generale might exit the investment entirely.

Information memoranda for the sale of Babilou were initially distributed to prospective bidders back in February this year, Unquote sister publication Mergermarket reported at the time. Babilou was being marketed based on a 2020 run-rate EBITDA of €110m, up from €85m in 2019, with an expected price tag of €1.5bn.

Antin was linked to a potential deal early on, as were Blackstone, CVC, Partners Group, Omers and trade player Bright Horizons. All parties bar CVC and Blackstone were said to be competing in the second round of the auction in mid-March. However, by that point, some of the shortlisted bidders were doubting that the sale would continue given the impact of the coronavirus on the French education system, Mergermarket reported at the time. The immediate nursery closures were expected to hit Babilou's 2020 EBITDA figures hard, according to a source cited in an 18 March report, with a corresponding impact on the company's price tag.

Previous funding
Alpha Associés Conseil invested €15m in Babilou via Alpha Private Equity Funds 5 in return for a minority holding in February 2008. It sold its stake to Cobepa and Societe Generale in September 2013.

Raise Investissement backed the company in April 2015. Subsequently, TA Associates invested in the business in April 2017, while Cobepa, Raise and Societe Generale retained a minority stake and the founding Carle family kept the majority.

Company
Established in 2003 and headquartered in Paris, Babilou operates a network of 670 nurseries and pre-school centres for children under the age of three.

Its nurseries are mostly based across France, but the company has also operations in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Babilou generated turnover of €418m in 2018 and around €500m in 2019. Its EBITDA amounts to approximately €110m. 

People
Babilou – Rodolphe Carle, Edouard Carle (co-founders).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• France
• Consumer
• TA Associates
• Raise Investissement
• Societe Generale
• Cobepa
• France