Five Arrows wins £300m Sygnature Discovery auction

Five Arrows, which secured the asset via an accelerated process, will now take over Phoenix Equity Partners' minority stake, three of the sources said.

Phoenix valued the business at around £300m, or 20x its £15m EBITDA, three of the sources said.

Deloitte advised the vendors, all four sources confirmed. They fielded first-round bids in early June after sending teasers in April, one of the sources said.

Nottingham-headquartered Sygnature, which provides outsourced drug discovery services to biotech and pharma companies, employs around 400 research scientists with particular expertise in in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, and drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, according to its website. Since Phoenix's investment in 2017, it has acquired in vivo pharmacology arm RenaSci, in vivo oncology firm Alderley Oncology and DMPK provider XenoGesis.

Phoenix, Sygnature and Deloitte declined to comment. Five Arrows did not return requests for comment.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Exits
• Healthcare
• Secondary buyout
• Phoenix Equity Partners
• Rothschild