Bridgepoint and DIC acquire Euromedic

Private equity firm Bridgepoint and Dubai International Capital (DIC), the investment arm of the Dubai government, are to team up to bid for Hugary-based European healthcare company Euromedic. The group has been valued at approximately US$1.4bn. Bridgepoint and DIC have hired UBS to advise them.

Current owners private equity firm Warburg Pincus and GE Healthcare backed the buyout of the company in 2005. GE had been an investor in the business since 1999. Euromedic was formed in the early-90s originally as a pharmaceutical distribution company in Hungary. It has since expanded to provide medical services through private public partnership schemes across Eastern Europe. More recently it has entered markets in Russia, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Switzerland.

Bridgepoint is in the process of closing a €5bn buyout fund having exceeded the fund’s initial target of €4bn. Bridgepoint and DIC met each other on another healthcare deal late last year when DIC acquired UK-based diagnostic imaging serivce provider Alliance Medical for £600m from Bridgepoint.

Bridgepoint opened its first Eastern European office in Warsaw in February 2007.