Cinven exits AmCo in £2.3bn trade sale

Greg Gille
08 September 2015

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Cinven has struck a deal to sell pharmaceutical group AmCo, borne out of the merger of Mercury Pharma and Amdipharm Group, to US listed player Concordia for ТЃ2.3bn.

The purchase price involves a combination of cash, Concordia shares and a performance-based earnout of up to £145m to be paid out over the next 12 months.

Cinven set up AmCo less than three years ago via the merger of Mercury Pharma and Amdipharm. The former was acquired in a £465m secondary buyout from HgCapital in August 2012, with Cinven preempting an auction process and the vendor reaping a 4.1x multiple on its original investment.

In October that same year, Cinven bought UK-based pharmaceuticals business Amdipharm for £367m from its founders. The GP then proceeded to merge the two companies as a platform to consolidate the niche pharmaceuticals market. The group went on to implement a buy-and-build strategy that led to five bolt-ons, including the purchase of Mobeus Equity Partners-backed Focus Pharmaceuticals for £50m in 2014.

According to Cinven, the strategy led to AmCo's EBITDA doubling over the holding period, with AmCo expected to post a £345-365m turnover this year.

The deal marks one of the largest exits scored by a GP in the UK & Ireland pharmaceutical space in the past five years, second only to the $8.5bn trade sale of Warner Chilcott by Bain and other investors in 2013.

Company
AmCo specialises in niche prescription, off-patent pharmaceutical products. The group has offices in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Asia, Australia and South Africa. It markets its products in around 100 countries.

People
Supraj Rajagopalan led the deal for Cinven.