Swedish private equity group EQT has agreed to buy Life Sciences Partners, an Amsterdam-based VC investor with €2.2 billion in assets and holdings in 150 life sciences firms.
The deal – details of which are here – will see EQT pay around €450 million ($515 million) to LSP: a quarter in cash and the rest in shares.
A further $25 million will be paid based on the achievement of “certain short-term fundraising targets,” specifics of which were not disclosed.
The merger will add a range of drug, device and technology developers to EQT’s portfolio.
Examples include NIPR BIOME, which recently announced a strategic collaboration with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centerto advance new CRISPR-based microbiome therapeutics.
The deal will also foster inter portfolio collaboration according to EQT spokesman Daniel Ketema.
He told us “LSP's expertise within life sciences will complement the knowledge base of EQT's healthcare sector platform and we also believe it will bring future cross-pollination opportunities.”
Ketema declined to comment on how the combination may impact individual portfolio companies in EQT's existing portfolio.
In a press statement René Kuijten, Managing Partner at LSP, and incoming Partner and Head of EQT Life Sciences, said, ‘’Europe has many attractive life sciences companies.
Kuijten added, “Together with EQT, one of the largest European private equity firms with more than €70 billion under management, LSP can select, develop, and finance these opportunities even better than before.
“Given the strong cultural fit and the complementarity between our organizations, we are convinced that joining forces is a win-win for our investors, our portfolio companies, our LSP colleagues, and the broader European life sciences ecosystem.”
The deal comes just a few weeks after regulators in the EU and India approved EQT’s takeover of US-based clinical research services organization Parexel in collaboration with Goldman Sachs.
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