Nordic Capital chases EUR10bn for Nycomed

Nordic Capital portfolio company Nycomed, a Swiss drugmaker, has been put on the block and may fetch up to EUR10bn.

"Much of the market is dead, but some players in certain sectors are very much alive," one adviser told unquote". "Corporates are natural buyers for healthcare companies and they are still out there and able to buy." Indeed the industry has lately seen a swathe of M&A activity: Merck and Schering-Plough recently announced their $41bn merger, less than two months after Pfizer agreed the $68bn takeover of rival Wyeth. The market has also seen Roche take full control of Genentech, as well as the merger of biotechs Gilead Sciences and CV Therapeutics.

If successful, the deal would see a price tag equivalent to 10x the company's 2009 EBITDA estimate. Nordic Capital acquired the business in 2005 in a EUR1.8bn buyout from DLJ Merchant Banking and Blackstone Group. In 2006, Nordic provided fresh equity for the EUR4.2bn bolt-on of Switzerland's Altana.

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