Barclays France sells SAIME

Barclays Private Equity France has sold its stake in SAIME, a developer and distributor of ventilation products, to ResMed, a US manufacturer of respiratory medical equipment, for around E86m.

Barclays backed the secondary management buyout in February 2004 to become the majority shareholder alongside Antoine Heral, chairman of SAIME, and the management team. The previous owner was French firm Argos Soditic, which, through the Euroknights IV fund, completed an MBI in May 2002.

Speaking about the quick exit, Laurent Chauvois, director at Barclays Private Equity France who led the deal, said: “The business objectives we laid down for 2004-2005 were reached more quickly than we envisaged. This was mainly thanks to the good performance of the company’s existing and new product range as well as the acquisition of the German distribution company Take Air Medical GMBH in February 2005.”