CVC to buy Finnish healthcare group Mehilainen from KKR, Triton
18/05/2018 08:16
HELSINKI, May 18 (Reuters) - Buyout fund CVC Capital has
agreed to buy a majority stake in Mehilainen, one of Finland's
largest healthcare companies, from private equity companies KKR
KKR.N and Triton.
The companies, announcing the sale in separate statements on
Friday, did not disclose the price but the Financial Times,
citing unnamed sources, said the deal would be valued at 1.8
billion euros ($2.1 billion). Mehilainen had sales of 756
million euros last year.
The Finnish healthcare industry is restructuring ahead of a
potential shake-up aimed at boosting competition between
healthcare providers by opening up more opportunities to the
private sector.
Mehilainen said CVC would buy a stake of around 50 percent
and Finnish insurance group Lahitapiola and pension funds Varma
and Ilmarinen would increase their stakes to more than 30
percent combined. The actual stakes will be announced when the
deal has closed.
"This is a very good solution. A stock market listing would
have been an option, but this is better at this stage as the
market is in transformation," Mehilainen's CEO Janne-Olli
Jarvenpaa told Reuters by phone. "We'll have a long-term
investor with capability to fund growth projects."
He declined to disclose the price of the deal and CVC, KKR
and Triton were not immediately available to comment.
The Finnish parliament is expected to vote on the
government's healthcare reform bill next month.
On Thursday, Mehilainen's rival Terveystalo TTALO.HE
agreed to buy Swedish rival Attendo's ATTE.ST Finnish
operations for 233 million euros.
($1 = 0.8470 euros)
(Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Susan Fenton)
((jussi.rosendahl@thomsonreuters.com; +358 9 6805 0248; Reuters
Messaging: jussi.rosendahl.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))