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One of the world’s biggest laboratory equipment suppliers has been put up for sale by its private equity owners, as cash generated from exits of sponsor-backed healthcare companies approaches its highest level since before the pandemic.
Private equity groups GTCR and Golden Gate Capital have hired advisers from Goldman Sachs and Jefferies to run an auction process for Antylia Scientific, three people familiar with the matter said, adding the sale could fetch more than $2bn.
The cash generated from private equity exits of healthcare companies has picked up this year as firms look to return cash to investors, but deal count remains low.
Financial sponsors have generated nearly $115bn from full or partial exits of healthcare companies across 192 deals since January, according to PitchBook data. That has put 2024 on track to surpass the $145bn generated in 2021, which would make it the best year for capital returns from sponsor-backed healthcare exits in five years. But the number of private equity exits is set to be the lowest in at least a decade.
The large windfall from healthcare companies is a bright spot in an otherwise frustrating market for the private equity industry, which has struggled to return capital to investors. Buyout groups own more than 28,000 portfolio companies worth a combined $3.2tn, and many have been reluctant to sell those that have failed to generate the kinds of profits they had imagined, according to consultancy Bain & Co.
The Antylia investment has already provided healthy returns to the two firms. In 2021, Antylia sold its Masterflex division, which specialises in pumps used for fluid transfer during the production of monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and cell and gene therapies, to biotech group Avantor for $2.9bn.
GTCR first bought Antylia, previously known as Cole-Parmer, from diagnostics group Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2014. It then sold Cole-Parmer to Golden Gate Capital in 2017 before buying back a majority stake in 2019 for more than $2bn. Golden Gate Capital retained a minority shareholding alongside Antylia’s management team.
Antylia, which refinanced nearly $1.75bn worth of debt earlier this year, now operates five brands, the biggest of which is Cole-Parmer Essentials which supplies more than 200,000 different types of lab equipment. The group also sells equipment used in infectious diseases diagnostics and in wastewater analysis.
Antylia is likely to draw interest from diagnostic companies as well as other private equity groups, the people said.
GTCR, Golden Gate Capital, Goldman and Jefferies declined to comment.
Chicago-based GTCR was founded in 1980 by Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma, two early and influential investors in the buyout industry.
Its leaders have largely focused their efforts on midsized buyouts in the technology, healthcare and financials industries, where their strong returns have continued to attract investors. Last year GTCR raised $11.5bn for its flagship private equity fund, eclipsing a $9.3bn target and exceeding its previous fund by more than 40 per cent.
The firm, which manages $40bn, last year struck one of the biggest buyouts of 2023: the purchase of a majority stake in Worldpay from FIS.
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