General Atlantic picks suitors for lab group Amedes

Target: Amedes

Price: $822 million or more

Sponsor: General Atlantic

Financial Adviser: Goldman Sachs

Private equity firms such as BC Partners, which already owns Amedes peer Synlab, is among the suitors. Advent International and Onex Corp are also in the race, the people told sister news service Reuters. Amedes rival Sonic Healthcare, as well as investors PAI Partners and CVC Capital Partners, had also shown initial interest, but are not among the final contenders, the sources added.

The seller is hoping to attract bids that value the company’s equity and debt at between 600 million euros ($822.4 million) and 700 million euros, one source familiar with the transaction said. In information sets handed to potential buyers, Amedes’s annual EBITDA were put at more than 80 million euros, sources said.

Some potential buyers are, however, using their own estimates of an EBITDA of 50 million euros to 60 million euros and are offering to buy Amedes at a valuation of 9x this figure, sources familiar with the suitors said.

General Atlantic, which bought Amedes in 2007 for an undisclosed sum, declined to comment. Goldman Sachs, which is organizing the auction, declined to comment. The potential buyers also declined to comment, except for Onex, which was not immediately available for comment.

Hamburg-based Amedes employs 2,600 at its 35 laboratories and has 150 hospitals as customers. Bankers are working on debt financing packages or around 500 million euros, banking sources said.

Arno Schuetze and Clair Ruckin are correspondents for Reuters in Frankfurt and London, respectively. Additional reporting by Alexander HĂ¼bner.