Cerba, Oasis, Alliance Medical, Unilabs promise an interesting autumn
The lab sector end game will be interesting to watch with Pan-West European diagnostics group Unilabs and French reference lab Cerba both on the block. That might tempt private equity to try and merge the two, in much the same was Cinven has merged Synlab and Labco. There should be good synergies between the two. Unilabs is weak in reference labs and yet has strong presence across Western Europe. The fly in the ointment will be Cinven which could swoop on one of the pair and will want to ensure that any buyer pays a hefty price.
Alliance Medical kicks off in September. We hear rumours that this follows approaches to suppliers GE, Siemens and Philips. These big listed groups apparently have decided not to vertically integrate by buying Alliance’s imaging service businesses in Italy and the UK.
Elsewhere, Oasis, the second largest UK dentistry group is for sale. Investor Bridgepoint wants to pre-empt Carlyle which is expected to try and sell the largest chain, Mydentist. That is despite holding the business only since 2013!
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