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Montagu sells BSN to EQT

by Laura Board in London | Published June 11, 2012 at 9:24 AM

London buyout firm Montagu Private Equity LLP on Monday, June 11, sealed a deal to sell BSN Medical GmbH & Co. KG, its third attempt to sell the German bandages maker, with an agreement with EQT Partners AB worth €1.8 billion ($2.3 billion).

A person familiar with the situation said Montagu made about 3 times its money on the disposal, which followed attempts to sell BSN via an auction and initial public offering, respectively, in 2008 and 2010.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings plc ran the auction of BSN, which drew interest from buyout firms including CVC Capital Partners and BC Partners.

Montagu had used Morgan Stanley for its earlier efforts to shed its portfolio company. This time, Morgan Stanley advised EQT, alongside Deutsche Bank AG.

EQT, one of Europe's most active buyout firms at present, said it plans to expand BSN in Asia and Latin America.

The Hamburg-based medical supplies company had sales of close to €700 million in the past 12 months, which Montagu said marks a 30% increase over its six years of ownership. The exit price is at the low end of internal expectations the company might fetch between about €1.8 billion and €2 billion and equates to roughly 10 times BSN's Ebitda, which a source said was more than €180 million.

Montagu director Sylvain Berger-Duquene noted that the firm had invested in R&D and manufacturing facilities and orchestrated five acquisitions for BSN, which it bought in 2005 from a joint venture of Beiersdorf AG and Smith & Nephew plc.

Montagu invests in northern European companies across industry sectors, typically buying targets with an enterprise value between €100 billion and €1 billion. Last Month it agreed to buy Leeds, England, vehicle information business CAP Ltd. from a portfolio company of Apax Partners LLP and Guardian Media Group plc for a reported £150 million ($233 million).

EQT is buying BSN from its EQT VI fund, which in April agreed to buy pest-control and food-safety services company Anticimex Group from Swedish buyout firm Ratos AB for an enterprise value of about 2.7 billion Swedish kronor ($381.7 million). In December EQT VI bought Norwegian telecom and data company Ventelo Holding AS for up to 1.8 billion Norwegian kroner. EQT VI closed at €4.75 billion last October.

In May, EQT V agreed to sell cancer diagnostics company Dako A/S to Agilent Technologies Inc. for an enterprise value of about 12.8 billion Danish kroner ($2.2 billion).

Clifford Chance LLP provided legal advice to Montagu/BSN.

The Goldman Sachs team advising Montagu and BSN was led by Guy Slimmon and Rainer Lenhard.

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