Trends in the healthcare sector

In 2016, three of the four largest acqui­si­ti­ons by private equity funds in the health­care sector were public-to-private tran­sac­tions. In April 2017, two private equity (PE) funds bid €5.3 billion for Germany’s Stada Arznei­mit­tel AG, not an isola­ted case. A trend can be obser­ved world­wide: the acqui­si­tion of listed health­care compa­nies by PE funds. Such public-to-private (P2P) tran­sac­tions have alre­ady played a key role in 2016, with the volume of new invest­ments by PE funds in the health­care sector incre­asing by almost 60 percent to $36.4 billion. In three of the four largest acqui­si­ti­ons, invest­ment compa­nies purcha­sed shares traded on the stock exch­ange. — What are the current trends?