Closing of the transactions is expected towards the end of 2009, at which point BC Partners plans to merge the two companies. Synlab and FutureLAB have a combined headcount of over 4,000 full-time employees generating sales of around EUR 380 million. As a result of the merger, the new company will assume a leading market position in Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Slovakia.
Dr. Ewald Walgenbach, a senior partner at BC Partners, said: "Laboratory diagnostics is a stable international growth market. By investing in two excellently positioned companies such as FutureLAB and Synlab, we are creating a strong base from which the combined company can play an active role in the ongoing international consolidation of the laboratory market - both by means of organic growth and via further acquisitions which we will support by making available the appropriate resources."
Professor Dr. Michael Havel, founder and CEO of FutureLAB, sees BC Partners' investment as the logical continuation of his own vision for the company: "When we incorporated FutureLAB in 2004, we wanted to make it one of the major European operators in the laboratory market. This is a goal which we have achieved. One material reason why the owners of FutureLAB opted for a sale to BC Partners - subject to certain conditions precedent being satisfied - out of the numerous interested parties was the opportunity for the present owners and managers to retain a stake in the company and actively contribute to its expansion strategy."
Dr. Bartl Wimmer, managing director of Synlab GmbH, said: "With its experience in the health care sector, BC Partners has the sensitivity which is crucial in this industry. We welcome this and are also looking forward to the upcoming partnership with FutureLAB which will allow us to take a major step forward in Europe."
BC Partners was advised by Raiffeisen Investment AG, Ernst & Young, KPMG and CMS on this transaction. Bank financing is provided by Raiffeisen, Unicredit and WestLB.
About BC Partners – www.bcpartners.de / www.bcpartners.com
With offices in London, Hamburg, Paris, Geneva, Milan and New York, BC Partners is one of the leading international private equity firms. In a corporate history spanning over 20 years, the funds advised by BC Partners have invested in 69 companies with a total enterprise value of EUR 65 billion. BC Partners has extensive experience and skills in the health care market thanks to investments in Hirslanden, the leading Swiss private clinic group, the General Healthcare Group, the largest private chain of clinics for acute care and psychiatry in the United Kingdom, and Centro Medico Teknon in Spain. BC Partners' German portfolio companies include cable company Unitymedia (Cologne), Europe's top chemicals distributor Brenntag (Mülheim/Ruhr) and transformer producer SGB Starkstrom Gerätebau (Regensburg and Neumark).
About Synlab – www.synlab.de
Laboratory services provider Synlab was established in 1998. Fifty five of its 73 sites around the world are located in Germany, where the company employs around 2,000 people, including some 200 medical doctors, scientists and engineers. Last year, it performed around 100 million analyses in the three main areas of human medical, veterinary and environmental analysis. In addition to its core laboratory diagnostics business, Synlab also offers consulting and administration services for clinics and medical practitioners. The company operates in a total of 18 countries.
About FutureLAB – www.futurebiolab.at
Based in Austria, the international laboratory group currently has around 2,000 employees at over 120 facilities in seven countries (Germany, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary). FutureLAB's core skills revolve around the operation of hospitals and extramural laboratories in line with the highest standards of quality. Each day, 200,000 analyses are performed on over 30,000 patient samples. The company is one of the market leaders in Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary and amongst the top three in Switzerland and Slovakia.