Electra Partners has announced that its portfolio company AXIO Group has received a binding offer from M3, Inc. to purchase Vidal Group, a leading European provider of reference drug information for healthcare professionals, for EUR100 million. The proposed transaction, which remains subject to certain conditions including consultation with the relevant works council in France and regulatory approvals, would be the fourth major realisation from AXIO’s portfolio.
Based on today’s exchange rates, Electra Private Equity PLC would receive proceeds from AXIO of GBP55 million, an uplift of GBP17 million on the valuation of Electra’s investment at 31 March 2016 and equivalent to an increase in its NAV of 35 pence per share. The sale of Vidal would increase the total cash proceeds received by Electra from its investment in AXIO to almost GBP250 million, or 2.8x original cost, and the total return, including Electra’s investment in the remaining AXIO businesses, to 4.0x original cost.
Vidal is a leading European healthcare informatics and information systems company. The company provides hospitals, primary care physicians, pharmacists and patients across Europe with access to up-to-date drug databases and related treatment-based information, and so brings drug intelligence and clinical decision support tools directly to the point of care.
Alex Cooper-Evans, Partner at Electra Partners, said: “The proposed sale of Vidal is another example of the successful implementation of our strategy for AXIO. We started in 2013 with a complex portfolio of disparate assets which we have transformed by putting in place the right long-term strategy and delivering with operational improvement, growth investment and M&A. This transformation has resulted in AXIO’s businesses becoming highly attractive to strategic buyers.
The AXIO investment is performing well: the sale of Vidal would take the total return to 4.0x investment cost, including cash proceeds of 2.8x investment cost. The remaining businesses in the AXIO portfolio generated EBITDA of GBP16 million in 2015, a level which has more than doubled over the course of our ownership. We will continue to drive performance across these businesses through the ongoing application of our active ownership approach.”
Alex Fortescue, Alex Cooper-Evans and Sarah Williams are responsible for the investment in AXIO Group.
Electra has seen a high level of investment activity since September 2015. Including today’s announcement this period has seen realisations or agreements to sell of nearly GBP1 billion and new investments of over GBP200 million. Realisations announced since September 2015 include the exits of Daler-Rowney, Elian, Kalle, MIMS and Zensar Technologies, the partial realisations of Allflex, Hollywood Bowl and Premier Asset Management, and the proceeds from the refinancing of the Park Resorts Group at the time of its merger with Parkdean Holidays. New investments include the buyouts of Photobox Group and Retirement Bridge Group and investments in two CLOs.
ELTA : Electra sells Vidal Group