MidEuropa Sells Alpha Medical
MidEuropa, the leading private equity investor in Central and South Eastern Europe, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to sell Alpha Medical (“Alpha” or the “Company”), the leading provider of laboratory testing services in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to Unilabs. The transaction is subject to customary clearance by local competition authorities, and is expected to close in Q2 2017.
The transaction represents the largest healthcare transaction in Central Europe since 2008.
It is also the largest private equity exit in the Czech and Slovak markets since MidEuropa’s sale of its stake in T- Mobile CZ in 2014.
Matthew Strassberg, co-Managing Partner of MidEuropa, who founded and leads MidEuropa’s healthcare sector practice, commented:
“It has been a privilege to work with Alpha’s highly talented and motivated management team. MidEuropa partnered with Alpha to support its pro-active market consolidation, investing over EUR120 million in 27 add-on acquisitions and capital expenditures. Having developed the Company into a world-class healthcare service provider, we are pleased that Unilabs has recognized Alpha’s unique strategic position and the excellence it offers in patient care and will back the management team as it seeks to take the business to the next level.”
Pawel Padusinski, Partner and co-head of MidEuropa’s Warsaw office who has been involved with Alpha throughout the investment cycle, noted:
“During our ownership, Alpha invested heavily to enhance its service offering, to improve the speed and accuracy of its results and to broaden the network of labs and collection points. As a result, Alpha more than doubled the number of laboratory analyses it performs annually – to over 55 million tests during 2016, and has increased employment by more than 550 professionals, to well over 1,550.”
Viktoria Habanova, Associate Director of MidEuropa who covers the Czech and Slovak markets and led the execution of the transaction, said:
“MidEuropa continues to seek to partner with industry-leading management teams and business founders in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Our positive experience of working with firms such as Karneval, CRa, Walmark and Alpha illustrates our on-going commitment to the Czech and Slovak markets where we have invested over €1 billion over the past 10 years.”
Peter Lednicky, the CEO of Alpha commented:
“MidEuropa has been a great partner and a visionary investor whose unique strategic guidance and strong financial commitment allowed us to transform our business into the undisputed leader in the Czech and Slovak laboratory analysis market. On behalf of the entire Alpha team, I want to thank MidEuropa for its support and contribution to our success. At the same time, we would like to extend an enthusiastic welcome to Unilabs. With their advanced technological know-how and the long-term strategic horizon, we anticipate Unilabs will make a major contribution to our Company and to the improvement in the quality of medical care in the markets we serve.”
Rothschild & Co acted as exclusive financial adviser to MidEuropa, Sidley and CMS Cameron McKenna as its legal counsels and PwC and E&Y as transaction services advisers.
The transaction was executed by Viktoria Habanova, Filip Kisdobranski and Przemyslaw Krenczyk.