NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Unilabs announced today that Nordic Capital and Apax Partners France have accepted an offer from Apax IX, a global buyout fund advised by Apax Partners LLP, for the acquisition of their stakes in the Geneva-based medical diagnostics firm.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Under the new ownership, Unilabs will be at the forefront of consolidation of the European laboratory space and continue to pursue its M&A strategy, the firm said, adding that driving a successful M&A strategy by acquiring smaller and medium-sized laboratories in a fragmented European laboratory market is critical to the future strategy of the business.
Unilabs' joint owners – private equity funds Apax Europe VI, Nordic Capital Fund VI, and Apax France VII – took the firm private from the Swiss stock exchange in November 2007 and merged it with the diagnostic division of healthcare provider Capio in 2008.
Unilabs noted it has more than 112 laboratories and 43 medical imaging units in 10 European countries, and it has emerging positions in the Middle East and Latin America.
“We are pleased to exit in the knowledge that Unilabs, under the continued partnership with Apax Partners LLP, will be ideally equipped to pursue its journey…,” Bertrand Pivin, partner at Apax Partners France, said in a statement.