EdRCP sells Mediascience to Siparex

Ellie Pullen
20 September 2013

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Siparex has led a consortium to wholly acquire Mediascience Group from Edmond de Rothschild Capital Partners (EdRCP).

Siparex acquired a majority stake in Mediascience via its Siparex MidCap II fund, which held its final close in June 2012 on its hard-cap of €130m. Socadif, Unexo and Société Générale Capital Partenaires (SGCP) invested alongside the GP.

Previous funding
The transaction is a tertiary buyout; EdRCP acquired the business in February 2005 from a consortium of investors comprising Parconexi, Omnes Capital, Initiative & Finance and Cinindev. EdRCP bought the company via its Edmond de Rothschild LBO Fund, which closed in October 2004 on €210m, and took control of a 63% stake, according to unquote" data.

The Parconexi consortium had acquired Mediascience in January 2002 for €26m, €11m of which was provided as equity, €9m as senior debt and €6m as mezzanine funding. Omnes supplied both equity and mezzanine in the transaction, according to unquote" data. Crédit Industriel de Normandie provided the debt facility.

Debt
A senior debt facility has been provided for the transaction by a syndicate of lenders, comprising Banque Palatine, CIC Nord-Ouest, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole Normandie Seine. Mezzanine debt was provided by CIC Mezzanine.

Company
The Mediascience group comprises Jeulin, Chrysis and Technologie Services. The group provides educational materials for the sciences and technology industries.

Originally founded in 1925, Mediascience is headquartered in Evreux and currently employs 230 staff. The company generated turnover of €47.6m in 2012.

People
Patrick Esnault is the director of Mediascience. Benoît Métais, Antoine Krug, Emilie de Villeneuve Esclapon and Mathieu Marc led the deal for Siparex. Bernard Garnier and Luis Baptista represented Socadif, while Stéphane Kerlo acted for Unexo and Emmanuel Leplat represented SGCP. Erick Fouque, Louis-Antoine Roullier and Thomas Moussallieh led the divestment for EdRCP.

Advisers
Equity – Cabinet CVML, Benoît Marpeau, Carine Rohou-Borsello, Franck Le Mentec, François Dietrich (Legal); PwC, Didier Sidois, Marie-Hélène Mikicic (Financial due diligence).
Company – Oloryn Partners, Roland de Farcy, Eric Lesieur (Corporate finance); Kramer Levin, Yannick Olivier (Legal).
Vendor – Lincoln International, Dominique Lecendreux, Serge Palleau, Laetitia Pariente (Corporate finance); Paul Hastings, Alexis Terray, Sébastien Crépy (Legal); Deloitte, Cécile Rémy (Commercial due diligence).
Debt – Cabinet Delsol, Frédéricque Milotic (Legal).