Phadia sold for €1.3bn

PPM Capital, the private equity arm of Prudential, and Triton, the Swedish buyout house, has sold Phadia, an allergy specialist, to Cinven in a €1.3bn deal.

Phadia is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, and develops, makes and markets in-vitro allergy testing systems. It has around 5,000 such systems installed in over 3,000 laboratories in 60 countries and employs over 1,164 people.

Cinven partner Stuart McAlpine, said: “Phadia is a medtech business that has carved itself a leadership position in the area of in vitro diagnostic testing through a combination of technological leadership and a strong and well established direct and indirect channel to market. This has been the foundation of its success and financial performance to date.

As allergies and auto-immune diseases become evermore prevalent, Phadia is in a strong position to provide clinicians with fast and accurate in vitro diagnostic systems. Cinven will be investing heavily in accelerating top-line and profit growth through the significant expansion of Phadia’s global sales and marketing capability across its global footprint and the broadening of its diagnostic offering.”

PPM and Triton bought Phadia, formerly known as Pharmacia Diagnostics) from Pfizer in early 2004 for €471m. Since that time the business has expanded into the US and grown its autoimmunity and international divisions.

Gareth Whiley, a director of PPM Capital, said: “This has been a highly successful investment for us, and continues our excellent track record of investment in healthcare companies.”