A little more than six years ago, The Carlyle Group paid $4 billion for Nature’s Bounty—then known as NBTY—a maker and seller of nutritional supplements. Now, the firm is discussing an exit from the New York-based business that could net as much as $6 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.
Carlyle reportedly prefers to keep the company intact, but could instead decide to separately sell Holland & Barrett, the international division of Nature’s Bounty. The firm used capital from both the $13.7 billion Carlyle Partners V and the €5.4 billion Carlyle Europe Partners III to finance its initial acquisition of the business in 2010.
Carlyle is usually considered one of the mightiest firms in the industry (and for very good reason), but in recent history, the group has actually completed relatively few mega-deals. Since the start of 2010, Carlyle has conducted just one acquisition for more than $5 billion, according to the PitchBook Platform, and Nature’s Bounty is one of just a handful of companies in the firm’s portfolio that came with a price tag over the $3 billion mark.
Of the several companies purchased this decade, Nature’s Bounty would be just the third from which Carlyle has lined up an exit—and the first exit by means other than IPO. Here’s are some of the firm’s most significant recent investments:
PitchBook Platform subscribers can access a bevy of other info on The Carlyle Group’s past investments, closed funds, management team and more right here.
Article by Kevin Dowd, PitchBook
