Bain Capital and Cinven sell majority stake in STADA to CapVest

Frank­furt a. M. / London — The inter­na­tio­nal private equity firms Bain Capi­tal and Cinven have signed a binding agree­ment to sell a majo­rity stake in STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG (“STADA”) to CapVest Part­ners LLP (“CapVest”). Since the take­over by the two PE compa­nies, Stada has grown by nine percent annu­ally and now gene­ra­tes annual sales of more than four billion euros. — The gene­rics manu­fac­tu­rer was conside­red one of the hottest IPO candi­da­tes this year. 

Bain Capi­tal and Cinven acqui­red STADA in 2017 and subse­quently delis­ted the company from the stock exch­ange. Since then, they have supported the manage­ment team in trans­forming STADA from a tradi­tio­nal German gene­rics manu­fac­tu­rer into a leading, broad-based global health­care plat­form with a stra­te­gic focus on the three areas of consu­mer health­care, gene­rics and specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals. Under the owner­ship of Bain Capi­tal and Cinven, STADA has increased its sales to over EUR 4 billion, achie­ved an average annual growth rate of 9 percent and more than doubled its EBITDA (adjus­ted earnings before inte­rest, taxes, depre­cia­tion and amortization). 

Bain Capi­tal and Cinven have supported STADA in over 25 targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons to further expand its market presence in Europe and beyond. The most important acqui­si­ti­ons include the Nizoral brand from John­son & John­son, Walm­ark and port­fo­lios of various consu­mer health­care brands from Glax­oS­mit­h­Kline and Sanofi. Thanks to the invest­ments and exper­tise of both compa­nies, STADA is now one of the leading health­care and phar­maceu­ti­cal groups in Europe. 

CapVest as new part­ner with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in health­care invest­ments. With exten­sive indus­try know­ledge and a strong track record in health­care invest­ments, CapVest is the ideal part­ner to accom­pany STADA in its next phase of growth. CapVest also shares the prin­ci­ples that have shaped STADA’s
success to date: respon­si­ble owner­ship, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and long-term value creation. 

Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, Bain Capi­tal and Cinven intend to retain a mino­rity stake in STADA — a clear sign of their confi­dence in the company’s contin­ued growth poten­tial and the exper­tise of the manage­ment team.

Peter Gold­schmidt, CEO of STADA, said: “Bain Capi­tal and Cinven have been excel­lent part­ners on our jour­ney to become a global market leader in consu­mer health­care, gene­rics and specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals. Their support and confi­dence in our vision has enab­led us to acce­le­rate our growth, drive inno­va­tion and expand inter­na­tio­nally. We look forward to buil­ding on our leading posi­tion toge­ther with CapVest.”

Dr. Michael Siefke, Part­ner at Bain Capi­tal, said: “Since our invest­ment in 2017, we are proud to have accom­pa­nied STADA on its path to beco­ming a leading pharma plat­form in Europe. Toge­ther with Cinven and the outstan­ding manage­ment team, we were able to scale the consu­mer health­care busi­ness, streng­then the gene­rics busi­ness and expand the specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals segment. The successful exit demons­tra­tes the growth poten­tial of the company and the great commit­ment of its employees.”

Bruno Schick, Co-Mana­­ging Part­ner and Head of DACH at Cinven, added: “STADA has deve­lo­ped extre­mely well in recent years. Toge­ther with Bain Capi­tal and the manage­ment team, we have supported STADA in shar­pe­ning its stra­te­gic focus, expan­ding its inter­na­tio­nal presence and inves­t­ing heavily in inno­va­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and opera­tio­nal excellence
. The estab­lish­ment of an agile manage­ment team and modern gover­nance struc­tures was central to this. With the new owner­ship struc­ture and CapVest by our side, we look forward to conti­nuing STADA’s jour­ney as a mino­rity investor.” 

Jeffe­ries and Roth­schild & Co are support­ing the tran­sac­tion as M&A advi­sors. In addi­tion, Bain and Cinven were advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Morgan Stan­ley, JP Morgan, Gold­man Sachs and Deut­sche Bank in addi­tion to their role as global IPO coor­di­na­tors. Other advi­sors included Kirk­land & Ellis, EY, BCG and ERM. — Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disc­lo­sed. The closing is subject to the 

About Cinven

Cinven is a leading inter­na­tio­nal private equity firm focu­sed on buil­ding world-class global busi­nesses. Cinven focu­ses on six sectors: Consu­mer, Busi­ness Services, Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Indus­tri­als and TMT (Tech­no­logy,
Media and Tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons). Cinven has offices in major centers such as London, Frank­furt, Paris, Milan, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, New York and Guern­sey. The firm takes a respon­si­ble approach to its port­fo­lio compa­nies, their employees, suppli­ers, local commu­ni­ties, the
envi­ron­ment and society as a whole. 

The manage­ment compa­nies of the Cinven Funds, Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (V) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted, Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (VI) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted, Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (VII) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted and Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (SFF) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted, are each licen­sed and regu­la­ted by the Guern­sey Financial
Services Commis­sion. Cinven Limi­ted, the advi­ser to the manage­ment compa­nies of the Cinven funds, is a regu­la­ted entity by the Finan­cial Conduct Autho­rity. In this press release, ‘Cinven’ means, indi­vi­du­ally or coll­ec­tively, as the context requi­res, Cinven Holdings Guern­sey Limi­ted, Cinven Part­ner­ship LLP and their respec­tive part­ners (as defi­ned in the Compa­nies Act 2006) and/or funds mana­ged or advi­sed by any of the foregoing.
http://www.cinven.com or 

About Bain Capital

Foun­ded in 1984, Bain Capi­tal is one of the worl­d’s leading private invest­ment firms. We are commit­ted to deli­ve­ring sustainable
results for our inves­tors, teams, compa­nies and the commu­ni­ties in which we operate. As a private part­ner­ship, we lead with convic­tion and a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion — advan­ta­ges that enable us to deve­lop inno­va­tive invest­ment approa­ches, capi­ta­lize on oppor­tu­ni­ties and deli­ver excep­tio­nal results. Our global plat­form invests in five core areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capi­tal Solu­ti­ons, Credit & Capi­tal Markets and Real Assets. We are repre­sen­ted in 24 loca­ti­ons on four conti­nents, employ more than 1,850 people and have assets under manage­ment of around USD 185 billion. — www.baincapital.com

About STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG

STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG is based in Bad Vilbel, Hesse. The company focu­ses on a three-pillar stra­tegy consis­ting of consu­mer health­care products, gene­rics and specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals. STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG sells its products in more than 120 count­ries world­wide. In finan­cial year 2024, STADA achieved
Group sales of €4,059 million and adjus­ted earnings before inte­rest, taxes, depre­cia­tion and amortization. 

Advi­sor CAPVEST: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

The Will­kie team compri­sed part­ners David Arnold (Corporate/PE, London), Dr. Nils Röver (Corporate/PE, Munich/Hamburg), Andrew Gray (Corporate/PE, London, all three lead), Dr. Kamyar Abrar, Georg
Linde (both Corporate/PE, Frank­furt), Dr. Bettina Bokeloh, Dr. Patrick Meiisel (both Tax, Frank­furt), Matthias Schr­a­der (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt), Rita Mitchell (Liti­ga­tion, London), Rahul Saha (Anti­trust, London), Dr. Georg Weiden­bach (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Dr. Richard Roeder (Compli­ance, Munich), Anne Kleff­mann (Employ­ment, Munich), Coun­sel Jacob Ahme (Corporate/PE, Munich/Hamburg), Henning Aufderhaar
(real estate law), Harry Nett­lau (liti­ga­tion), Martin Waskow­ski (employ­ment law, all Frank­furt), Alaric Green (anti­trust law, London) as well as asso­cia­tes Nils Bock, Patrick Kemper, Melina Terwes­ten, Jonas Volk, Sophie Wollen­we­ber (all corporate/PE), Dr. Phil­ipp Stein­hau­sen (finance) Dr. Chris­tian Wert­h­mül­ler (real estate law), Sascha Wink­ler (employ­ment law, all Frank­furt), Fabiola Haas, Maxi­mi­lian Schatz, Micheal Wies­ner, Dr. Zeno Wirtz (all corporate/PE), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schlutz (compli­ance) and Laurin Havlik (anti­trust law, all Munich).

About Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP provi­des leading legal solu­ti­ons to complex, busi­­ness-criti­­cal issues that span markets and indus­tries. Our appro­xi­m­ately 1,300 lawy­ers in 16 offices world­wide provide inno­va­tive, prag­ma­tic and sophisti­ca­ted legal services in around 45 areas of law.
www.willkie.com