Munich, Germany — Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”), one of Europe’s most active equity inves­tors, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Omni­care, a Germany-wide phar­maceu­ti­cal whole­sa­ler focu­sed on the distri­bu­tion of finis­hed dosage forms for the pati­ent-speci­­fic produc­tion of cancer drugs. The seller of the shares is the current consor­tium of share­hol­ders, which reta­ins a signi­fi­cant stake. — The manage­ment team around Mana­ging Direc­tor Oliver Tamimi will conti­nue to be respon­si­ble for the company and will make a signi­fi­cant invest­ment in the course of the tran­sac­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The acqui­si­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the fourth quar­ter of 2019.

Omni­care was foun­ded in 2002 as a phar­maceu­ti­cal specialty whole­sa­ler for outpa­ti­ent onco­logy care in Germany. To date, the company has become the market leader for the distri­bu­tion of finis­hed onco­logy drugs requi­red by phar­macies for pati­ent-speci­­fic infu­si­ons. In addi­tion to the supply of finis­hed phar­maceu­ti­cals, Omni­care has been deve­lo­ping important services for highly specia­li­zed phar­macies and medi­cal prac­ti­ces since 2012 for quality assu­rance, clean­room hygiene moni­to­ring, and the trai­ning and conti­nuing educa­tion of specia­list staff. In early 2019, these services were expan­ded to become the Omni­care Quality Initia­tive, with the goal of provi­ding safe, high-quality care to onco­logy patients.

In 2018, Omni­care also estab­lished the “German Onco­logy Network” of leading onco­logy prac­ti­ces and has been conti­nuously expan­ding it ever since. The goal of this network is the struc­tu­ral streng­thening and further deve­lo­p­ment of onco­logy prac­ti­ces for the bene­fit of pati­ents. Omni­care has syste­ma­ti­cally deve­lo­ped into a leading plat­form for outpa­ti­ent onco­logy care in Germany. In this way, the company is making a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to provi­ding the best possi­ble care for cancer pati­ents close to home in Germany. Omni­care gene­ra­tes annual sales of appro­xi­m­ately 670 million euros and employs 193 people in Unter­föh­ring, Colo­gne and Calw. In 2019, Omni­care is expec­ted to achieve sales growth of around 5 percent.

Dirk Sche­kerka (photo), Senior Part­ner and Coun­try Head DACH at Equis­tone, says: “Omnicare’s busi­ness model aims to contri­bute to the secu­rity of care and the highest quality of therapy for cancer pati­ents close to home. We are plea­sed to part­ner with the company in this endea­vor.” Alexis Milko­vic, Part­ner at Equis­tone, adds: “Omni­care has a strong market posi­tion, an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and excel­lent employees. These are excel­lent prere­qui­si­tes for the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company. As a new share­hol­der, we want to support Omni­care in further streng­thening and sustain­ably expan­ding its position.”

Oliver Tamimi, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Omni­care, says: “With Equis­tone, we have found a relia­ble and well-funded new part­ner for the further deve­lo­p­ment of our company. With Equistone’s support, we want to conti­nuously improve the care of cancer pati­ents in Germany close to their homes and on an outpa­ti­ent basis.”

On the Equis­tone side, Dirk Sche­kerka, Alexis Milko­vic and Julia Bruns­wi­cker are respon­si­ble for the transaction.

Advi­sor Equistone: 
P+P (Legal & Tax), Alva­rez & Marsal (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial), Houli­han Lokey (Finan­cing), Dechert (Anti­trust), Shear­man & Ster­ling (Legal Finan­cing) and ETS (Insu­rance).

On Omnicare’s side, Henge­ler Müller (Legal and Anti­trust), BCG (Commer­cial), KPMG (Finan­cial), EY (Tax), Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal (M&A) and Honert & Part­ner (MEP) advi­sed the manage­ment team on the transaction.

About Omni­care
Omni­care was foun­ded in 2002 as a phar­maceu­ti­cal whole­sa­ler supp­ly­ing specia­li­zed phar­macies throug­hout Germany. Since 2012, it has been working as a coope­ra­tive of cyto­sta­tics manu­fac­tu­ring phar­macies to preserve and secure the future of outpa­ti­ent onco­logy in Germany. The Omni­care Quality Initia­tive enables phar­macies to safely and effi­ci­ently provide onco­logy prac­ti­ces and their pati­ents with essen­tial medi­ca­ti­ons for survi­val. With the German Onco­logy Network, Omni­care has laun­ched a plat­form of leading onco­logy prac­ti­ces to streng­then outpa­ti­ent pati­ent care. In addi­tion, the company offers prac­­tice-rele­­vant trai­ning for prac­ti­ces and phar­macies and provi­des soft­ware solu­ti­ons that enable effi­ci­ent and safe chemo­the­rapy plan­ning and ordering.

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion at the hard cap.