ArchiMed buys four companies

European healthcare-focused private equity firm ArchiMed has acquired four companies: French health ingredients providers HIS and Fytexia; Polyplus, a maker of transfection reagents; and Micromed, a French-Italian neurodiagnostic company. No financial terms were disclosed for any of these transactions. Over two years ago, ArchiMed spun off from 3i‘s healthcare team.

PRESS RELEASE

September 19, 2016 – A bit more than two years after its creation as a spin-off from the 3i Healthcare team, ArchiMed announces a total of four investments completed during the summer. ArchiMed’s inaugural €150 million fund, Med 1, purchased control of French companies HIS and Fytexia, both active in the health ingredients field, as well as Strasbourg-based Polyplus, a transfection reagents manufacturer, and Franco-Italian Micromed, a neurodiagnostic company with worldwide leadership in epilepsy analysis.

Prior to these purchases, ArchiMed had already invested in four Medtech, Pharma and Care Services companies in the UK, Switzerland and Italy. The summer wave of four additional deals reinforces exposure to the Pharma and Medtech sectors. Companies within these two sectors -typically relying on highly specialized products involving complex technologies and scientific processes – are considered more difficult to evaluate than those in Care Services (mostly hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, homecare providers and diagnostic labs). As a result, the latter
sector is crowded with private equity firms vying to acquire companies, while Pharma and Medtech have been relatively untouched, with companies showing better value by comparison.

Pharma and Medtech companies are also, on average, easier to sell to trade buyers than most Care Service companies because of the unique demand for their proprietary products and processes.

“We’re ahead of schedule in capital deployment, which has given us just the kind of exposure we want when it comes to sectors, geographies and enterprise size,” says Denis Ribon, ArchiMed’s chairman. “We’ve also completed all eight of our investments – seven buyouts and one growth transaction – outside of auction processes, and always through direct, proactive approaches.”

“Our international team of 15 executives differentiates itself from competitors through proven, wide-ranging healthcare experience and an unusual mix of financial and operational backgrounds,” says Vincent Guillaumot, Managing Partner. “We’ve also put together a global
network of healthcare business leaders that can identify, approach and support companies in our prioritized sub-sectors. In addition to our own healthcare specialization and experience, this gives ArchiMed an edge when it comes to finding and investing in small, attractive companies
that were overlooked, or where the managements simply weren’t previously interested in concluding deals with private equity firms.“

“We are more staffed than most private equity firms our size, which provides more resources to accelerate the development of our companies, whether through internationalization, product range expansion, or acquisitions,” says Robin Filmer-Wilson, Managing Partner. With an
investment portfolio encompassing three vintage years, five countries and a half dozen sectors, and with no dependency on any public sector payer, ArchiMed’s healthcare portfolio is diversified enough to avoid concentration risk. Low entry prices and annual revenue growth
averaging 18 percent at portfolio companies are evidence of value creation in a sector where private equity appetite and mergers and acquisitions activity are higher than ever.

About ArchiMed – Founded by Denis Ribon, previously Global Head of Healthcare at 3i, and his fellow Managing Partners, Vincent Guillaumot – another former 3i healthcare executive – and Robin Filmer-Wilson, a former 3i healthcare co-investor, ArchiMed is an independent
private equity team 100% dedicated to the healthcare sector in Europe.

The Managing Partners are currently investing from the €150 million Med 1 fund. The ArchiMed team also includes Operating Partner Loïc Kubitza, previously a Leader at PwC’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice, and Operating Partner Christoph Böhmer, formerly a McKinsey partner and Managing Director of €1 billion-in-revenues cardiovascular leader Biotronik. ArchiMed invests in all healthcare sectors, targeting profitable, established European healthcare companies and investing between €5 million and €30 million per transaction. ArchiMed engages in both
unleveraged growth investments and leveraged buyouts. In the last sixteen years, the ArchiMed team has invested more than €1 billion in 20-plus companies, achieving a total return of over 2.6 times invested capital.
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