CG Results Healthcare is pleased to announce that it has advised Kester Capital (“Kester”) on the sale of a majority stake in its portfolio company, Avania (or the “Company”), to Astorg, a leading private equity firm. Avania is one of the leading global clinical CROs (“Contract Research Organisation”) dedicated to medical technology. Astorg, alongside Kester who intend to retain a minority stake, will actively support management’s plans to accelerate Avania’s development, organically and through M&A.

Avania is one of the leading global providers of outsourced clinical trial services specifically focused on medical technology, covering the full regulatory lifecycle across a broad range of therapeutic areas. Headquartered in the Netherlands, and with eight offices across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, Avania serves 300 medical device OEMs of different sizes through an integrated service offering including clinical trial management, biostatistics, regulatory consulting, data analytics, medical writing and reimbursement. The Company has experienced strong organic growth thanks to its differentiated proposition in a fast-growing market driven by innovation, increasing regulation and penetration of outsourcing.

Astorg’s investment, alongside an anticipated minority reinvestment by Kester and management, will enable the Company to continue expanding its service offering and geographic coverage, while actively executing M&A opportunities in a fragmented market. Avania is the third investment made by Astorg’s Mid-Cap fund.

Sapna Hornyak, CEO of Avania, said: “The platform we have built to date with the support of Kester has positioned us ahead of our competition in the MedTech CRO space. We are delighted to be adding Astorg as our partner which will bring additional investment to strengthen our infrastructure, capital for acquisitions and added expertise and insight as we continue to grow Avania into the clear market leader.”

Adam Maidment, Managing Partner of Kester Capital, commented: ”It has been a pleasure to work alongside Sapna and her team over the last 6 years building Avania into the leading MedTech CRO platform. We are delighted to have the opportunity to invest alongside Astorg and continue our involvement in this exceptional business.”

This cross-border transaction highlights CG Results Healthcare’s outstanding reputation in the healthcare and life sciences sector, further cementing the firm’s position as a leading advisor to medtech service providers having recently advised Agile MV on its sale to Resonetics.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

>>>> Read the press release here

CG Results is delighted to announce that it has advised Redstor, the fast-growing and disruptive B2B SaaS provider of category leading data management and protection solutions, on its significant investment from UK-headquartered Bregal Milestone.

UK-based Redstor, previously backed by Beech Tree Private Equity, enables channel partners worldwide to protect customer data across the broadest range of environments (on premise, cloud native infrastructure, SaaS applications) all from a single, cloud-based application. Its unique smart data management platform leverages AI and machine learning to help companies mitigate data fragmentation and failure points, thwart ransomware and malware attacks, reduce downtime and adhere to global regulatory standards.

Bregal Milestone is a European technology growth capital firm managing more than €1.1 billion and is part of Bregal Investments, a global investment firm with assets under management of over €12 billion.

This deal emphasises our very strong track record in advising leading European SaaS and cyber security businesses – represents our 12th completed SaaS transaction since the beginning of 2020 and our 11th European cyber security deal.

>>>> Read the press release here

This agreement successfully concludes the exclusive discussions entered into by the two companies on December 2nd, 2014. It also follows the information-consultation procedure of employee representative institutions, finalised by Sanofi on March 10th, 2015. This procedure has been supplemented with an agreement on supporting measures signed by three trade unions, CFE-CGC, CFTC and CFDT, resulting from a constructive social dialogue.

“I commend and thank our on-site team members for their hard work and commitment to this project, which is a major opportunity for the Toulouse site. I would also like to express my appreciation to all the stakeholders – elected officials, authorities, associations, members of the scientific community – whose invaluable support has made this project possible,” said Elias Zerhouni, Sanofi Global R&D President.

This strategic collaboration aims to sustain a high level of scientific and technological activities, maintain jobs and attract new talent and projects to the site. It puts into practice the commitments undertaken by Sanofi as part of the development project presented in July 2012 for its biomedical research activities in Toulouse.

In particular, the agreement includes the divestiture to Evotec of the site’s Research and Technological platform activities which match Evotec’s areas of expertise as well as the continuation of these activities and the corresponding transfer of the employees currently involved in these activities.

For Sanofi, the strategic collaboration also involves a financial commitment of €250 million over a five-year period for the implementation of a multi-year research program including, among other projects, the creation of a support fund dedicated to developing scientific collaboration with academic partners in France.

Evotec has thus become the sixth Bioparc resident company to benefit from the services and scientific infrastructures which our Support platform offers to all start-ups, biotechnology companies and academic players seeking to settle in the heart of the Oncopole.

CG Results Healthcare is delighted to have advised INC Research on signing its definitive merger agreement with inVentiv.

INC Research Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:INCR), a leading global Phase I–IV Contract Research Organization (“CRO”), and inVentiv Health, Inc., a leading, privately held, global CRO and Contract Commercial Organization (“CCO”), today announced that their Boards of Directors have unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which their businesses would combine in an all-stock transaction, creating a leading global biopharmaceutical solutions organization. Based upon the closing price of INC Research common stock on Tuesday, May 9, 2017, the transaction values inVentiv at an enterprise value of approximately $4.6 billion, and the combined company at an enterprise value of approximately $7.4 billion.

Upon closing of the transaction, INC Research shareholders are expected to own approximately 53 percent and inVentiv shareholders are expected to own approximately 47 percent of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. Advent International and Thomas H. Lee Partners, two preeminent private equity firms, are currently equal equity owners of inVentiv and will remain investors in the combined company upon closing of the merger.

CG Results International is delighted to announce that it has acted as exclusive financial advisor to Avecto on its acquisition by Bomgar (a Francisco Partners backed company). The deal will create a leading player in the Privilege Access Management (PAM) space by bringing together Avecto’s market leading endpoint privilege management offering with Bomgar’s capabilities in privileged account and session management.

SITUATION
CG Results International has developed a strong, long-term relationship with Avecto’s shareholders, initially advising them on the $49 million minority growth equity fundraise from JMI Equity in December 2015. Following this investment Avecto continued its exceptional growth and maintained its global leadership position in endpoint privilege management software.

TRANSACTION
Pairing Avecto with Bomgar’s privileged account and session management technology will enable businesses to fully implement the principle of least privilege and defend themselves against today’s most prevalent threats.

Forrester estimates that 80% of security breaches involve privileged credentials[1]. Privileged accounts are coveted targets for attackers and must be protected from both internal and external threats. Bomgar’s solutions protect privileged accounts, passwords, and credentials, while securing the remote access pathways commonly exploited in these attacks. Avecto’s technology adds another layer of defence at the endpoint by allowing organizations to remove excess admin rights only elevating privileges for approved applications and actions.

The addition of Avecto will also help the thousands of IT admins and support professionals using Bomgar’s Remote Support solutions to securely manage privileged access to desktops and workstations with minimal user interruption.

During 2018 CG Results International has advised both (i) Avecto, one of the most successful European Headquartered cybersecurity software vendors on its acquisition by Bomgar, and (ii) MWR InfoSecurity, one of the largest high-end cybersecurity service providers serving enterprises globally, on its acquisition by F-Secure. These transactions demonstrate CG Results International’s position as a leading advisor to the European cybersecurity sector and evidence our strong capabilities in delivering high value transactions for disruptive and fast-growth technology companies.

We are delighted to announce that CG Results Healthcare acted as exclusive financial advisor to GHO Capital, on its acquisition, alongside management, of Sterling Pharma Solutions – a specialist in complex and difficult to manufacture APIs.

GHO Capital is a European specialist investor in healthcare and this transaction reinforces our expertise in driving value for private equity clients in the life sciences sector.

Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Sterling is a leading provider of API development and manufacturing, with a reputation for world class quality standards.This is reflected in Sterling’s long-term relationships with blue-chip pharmaceutical and animal health clients, as well as a strong track record with global regulators including the FDA and EMA. Sterling delivers a full-service offering of API development and GMP manufacturing to support its customers throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Sterling is a provider of specialist services from clinical development through market launch to commercial supply. Outsourced small molecule API development and manufacturing is growing steadily at c. 7% per annum. This is overlaid with a long-term trend towards increasing molecule complexity, driving higher market growth rates in complex chemistry, where Sterling is an industry leader in Europe.

GHO Capital brings extensive sectoral expertise and networks in the global pharmaceutical and animal health industries, to support management in accelerating Sterling’s international growth.

CG Results Healthcare is pleased to announce that it has provided transaction advisory support to Bridgepoint on its acquisition of PharmaZell.

PharmaZell, a leading independent manufacturer of niche active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), was acquired by Bridgepoint from DPE Deutsche Private Equity and Maxburg Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. CG Results Healthcare was selected to support on this transaction due to its specialist team and exceptional track record in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector.

PharmaZell is a market leader in the highly resilient and specialty API market where it has a diversified portfolio of over 70 APIs, and enjoys leading industry positions in several products that treat respiratory, inflammatory and liver diseases driven by changing lifestyle habits. Many of the Company’s products require special handling procedures and/or technologies. Headquartered in Raubling (near Munich), PharmaZell operates four state-of-the-art production and R&D sites in Germany, Italy and India with over 900 employees globally.

The global market for small molecule APIs is estimated at over $70bn and growing continuously, driven by rising health standards and increasing drug consumption in emerging markets. In addition, the trend to outsourcing continues driven by cost optimisation and streamlining initiatives by the pharma majors.

This is CG Results Healthcare’s second transaction in the API manufacturing space in the last 12 months, after the acquisition of Sterling Pharma by GHO.