Deal Announcement 12/16: Pharma & MedTech

The Deal

The German PwC M&A team is pleased to announce the successful Closing of Project HIPPOCAMPUS, the sale of a majority stake in Schwind eye-tech-solutions GmbH & Co. KG and Schwind Beteiligungs GmbH (together “Schwind” or the “Company”) to Ardian Germany GmbH (“Ardian”), an international private equity firm, and Management. PwC M&A acted as exclusive financial advisor to Rolf Schwind, the sole shareholder of Schwind eye-tech-solutions, on this transaction.

A carefully selected, highly limited number of potential investors was approached by PwC M&A and a competitive sell-side process was arranged to achieve the best succession solution for the client. Mr. Schwind will retain a significant minority stake in the Company and continue to act as CEO. Besides M&A lead advisory, PwC provided additional deal services including commercial vendor due diligence, M&A tax advisory, legal advice and assurance services to ensure a smooth transaction process.

Schwind eye-tech-solutions

Schwind is a market leading specialist in refractive corneal surgery with a focus on excimer lasers, microkeratomes, diagnostic devices and eye-cam software. The Company was originally founded by Herbert Schwind in 1958 and is headquartered in Kleinostheim, Germany. Schwind employs more than 100 professionals and has established a strong international distribution network covering more than 125 countries. Approx. 90% of revenues are generated in international markets.

The Company to date has an installed base of more than 1,500 laser devices, most of which are part of Schwind’s key product family, the Amaris excimer lasers. With a repetition rate of up to 1,050 HZ and a 7D eye tracker system, the Amaris product family is by far the technological leader in the market for refractive eye surgery.

Ardian

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of USD 60bn managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The acquisition will be made by Ardian’s Expansion Fund IV, which closed in 2016 having raised EUR 1bn. Ardian maintains a global network, with more than 430 employees working from twelve offices worldwide, and covers the full range of asset classes, including Ardian Funds of Funds (primary, early secondary and secondary), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Buyout (including Ardian Mid Cap Buyout Europe & North America, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and Ardian Mandates.

PwC

The global PricewaterhouseCoopers network is a worldwide association of independent auditing and consulting companies which together employ more than 195,000 employees in 157 countries. Our global network comprises nearly 1,550 M&A professionals all over the world, realizing approx. 390 successful transactions per year. We specialize in a wide range of independent M&A services including advice on acquisitions and disposals, mergers, public takeovers, privatisations as well as structured financing.

The PwC M&A team in Germany acted as exclusive financial advisor to Rolf Schwind.

The PwC M&A deal team consisted of Dr. Alexander von Friesen (Partner), Oliver Boot (Senior Manager), Adrian Schlegtendal (Senior Consultant) and Philip Dehghan (Senior Consultant).