ArchiMed exits Fytexia

ArchiMed has sold Fytexia, a health ingredients developer, to Associated British Foods. No financial terms were disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

ArchiMed sells health ingredients developer Fytexia to Associated British Foods Sale earns a 4x return – Fytexia’s soaring top and bottom-line growth is set to continue in new partnership with Associated British Foods.

Trans-Atlantic private equity healthcare specialist ArchiMed announces the sale of health ingredients developer Fytexia to diversified food, ingredients and retail group, Associated British Foods, a FTSE 100 company. The transaction – which sees Fytexia join the ABF Ingredients division – earns ArchiMed’s inaugural MED I fund four times its investment. Following Fytexia’s sale, MED I retains its rank as the best performing buyout fund in the world across all sectors for the 2014 vintage, according to Preqin data. MED I has returned four and a half times invested capital to limited partners to date. Its total return – including four realized and five remaining investments – is seven times invested capital.

Working hand-in-hand with management since buying Fytexia in 2016, ArchiMed has built it into a category leader in botanic and insect-based polyphenols through senior level recruitment (commercial, board, finance, production, R&D), multiplication of clinical studies, product diversification, North American sales expansion and targeted acquisition. In 2021, using its global MedTalents® network (ArchiMed-associated senior healthcare professionals who identify, facilitate and advise on deals and counsel portfolio companies), ArchiMed sourced and executed Fytexia’s transformational acquisition of Milan, Italy-based B Natural – a leader in insect-based polyphenols – boosting sales some 40 percent.

Under ArchiMed’s ownership, total annual Fytexia sales growth has risen from the single digits to close to 30 percent for the past four years. Profits have risen four-fold over the same period.

“Our partnership with Fytexia is an example of the whole being greater than sum of the parts,” says ArchiMed partner, Robin Filmer-Wilson. “We put our skills in healthcare business development and M&A at the service of talented management teams looking to accelerate growth into the long-term. With their expertise, global reach and scale, ABF is the perfect relay partner for Fytexia’s continued expansion in this burgeoning sector.”

Businesses previously sold by ArchiMed’s MED I include healthcare ingredients group HIS, for an annualized return of over 400 percent; dental operator Primo, for three times investment; and gene and cell therapy technology specialist Polyplus-transfection for almost 70 times investment.

About ArchiMed – www.archimed.group With offices in the US and Europe, ArchiMed is a leading investment firm focused exclusively on healthcare industries. Its mix of operational, medical, scientific and financial expertise allows ArchiMed to serve as both a strategic and financial partner to European and North American small and middle-market businesses.

Prioritized areas of focus include biopharmaceutical products & services, life science tools, medical devices & technologies, diagnostics, healthcare IT and consumer health. ArchiMed helps partners internationalize, acquire, innovate and expand their products and services. Over the last twenty years, ArchiMed’s leadership team has directly managed and invested in over eighty small to large-size healthcare companies globally, representing over €50 billion of combined value. ArchiMed manages over €4 billion ($4.8 billion) in healthcare assets across its various funds. Since inception, ArchiMed has been a committed Impact investor, both directly and through its Eurêka Foundation.