The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman have entered into “advanced talks” to sell minority stakes in Pharmaceutical Product Development to investors including sovereign wealth funds GIC and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, according to Reuters. The deal would value the North Carolina-based clinical trial provider at more than $9 billion, including debt.
Though the deal structure is unknown, Carlyle and H&F, which currently own 60% and 40% of the company, respectively, would still combine to retain a majority stake.
The news comes after the firms fielded an offer for PPD from Pamplona Capital Management earlier this month, per the report. But Pamplona, despite additional backing from LetterOne, didn’t value the company as highly as latest rumored offer.
If the new deal goes through, it would likely represent a hefty return for Carlyle and H&F, which acquired PPD for $3.9 billion in a take-private transaction in 2011.
On a broader scale, PE investment in the US healthcare services industry is off to a slow start in 2017, with just 68 completed deals so far, according to the PitchBook Platform. If that pace continues, it would mark a steep decline from the decade-high 428 transactions in the sector last year and set a low mark since 2013.
PitchBook Platform users can view the full dataset here.
Article by Adam Lewis, PitchBook
