16th June 2021

Diagnostics and Life Sciences Firm Sold in £400M Deal

A deal has been agreed for the sale of a South Wales-headquartered supplier of products and services to the diagnostics and life sciences industries for an enterprise value in excess of £400m.

Private equity firm Exponent has reached an agreement to sell BBI Group  to Novo Holdings A/S, a global life sciences investor.

Founded in 1986, BBI provides critical reagents and immunoassay development, lateral flow development, diagnostic manufacturing services, and smartphone reader technologies to a global blue-chip customer base that includes Thermo-Fisher, Merck and Siemens.

The company’s brand, BBI Solutions, provides a range of products, including antibodies, antigens, labels, complementary reagents and point of care tests.

BBI is headquartered in Crumlin and employs more than 400 employees across its sites in seven countries and four continents.

Exponent acquired BBI as a corporate carve-out from US-listed Alere (now Abbott) in 2015. Over the last five years, BBI has strengthened its management team, expanded its presence in the US, built operations in China, successfully completed three acquisitions and invested in a state of the art manufacturing facility in Wales.

Mario Gualano, group chief executive of BBI Group, said: “We are hugely grateful to Exponent for the support we have received over the last five years. We have grown revenues and profitability considerably through investing in our products and services, people, and world-class infrastructure.

“We now have a fully invested and scalable platform to deliver future growth in a large and fast-growing market.

“We are delighted to be working with Novo Holdings, a team with a strong track record and a shared vision for growth and innovation.”

James Gunton, partner at Exponent, added: “We are delighted with the success of BBI under Exponent’s ownership. We have enjoyed working with Mario and the team over the last five years in transforming BBI into a world-class diagnostics platform for the healthcare and life sciences industry. We wish both the management team and Novo Holdings every success for the future and look forward to seeing the company continue to prosper.”

Johan Hueffer, senior partner at Novo Holdings, said: “We are proud to be the next owners of BBI. Diagnostics is a very attractive space which, with an enhanced global focus on preventative medicine, will play an increasingly important part in improving health outcomes for patients around the world.

“We see tremendous opportunities for both organic and inorganic growth for the company. Novo Holdings is looking forward to contributing its considerable industry expertise and extensive network in supporting the talented team at BBI.”

BBI Group Holdco was advised by J.P. Morgan (sole financial adviser), LEK (commercial vendor diligence), PwC (financial vendor diligence) and Allen & Overy (legal adviser). Novo Holdings was advised by Lazard (sole financial adviser) and Kromann Reumert, Latham & Watkins, and Linklaters (legal advisers).