Epiris announces the sale of Vidal Group

POSTED 07 October 2016

Epiris is pleased to announce that its portfolio company AXIO Group (“AXIO”) has received a binding offer from M3, Inc. to purchase Vidal Group (“Vidal”), a leading European provider of reference drug information for healthcare professionals, for €100 million. The proposed transaction, which remains subject to certain conditions including consultation with the relevant works council in France and regulatory approvals, would be the fourth major realisation from AXIO’s portfolio.

Based on today’s exchange rates, Electra Private Equity PLC (“Electra”) would receive proceeds from AXIO of £55 million, an uplift of £17 million on the valuation of Electra’s investment at 31 March 2016 and equivalent to an increase in its NAV of 35 pence per share. The sale of Vidal would increase the total cash proceeds received by Electra from its investment in AXIO to almost £250 million, or 2.8x original cost, and the total return, including Electra’s investment in the remaining AXIO businesses, to 4.0x original cost.

Vidal is a leading European healthcare informatics and information systems company. The company provides hospitals, primary care physicians, pharmacists and patients across Europe with access to up-to-date drug databases and related treatment-based information, and so brings drug intelligence and clinical decision support tools directly to the point of care.

Alex Cooper-Evans, Partner at Epiris, said:

“The proposed sale of Vidal is another example of the successful implementation of our strategy for AXIO. We started in 2013 with a complex portfolio of disparate assets which we have transformed by putting in place the right long-term strategy and delivering with operational improvement, growth investment and M&A. This transformation has resulted in AXIO’s businesses becoming highly attractive to strategic buyers.

“The AXIO investment is performing well: the sale of Vidal would take the total return to 4.0x investment cost, including cash proceeds of 2.8x investment cost. The remaining businesses in the AXIO portfolio generated EBITDA of £16 million in 2015, a level which has more than doubled over the course of our ownership. We will continue to drive performance across these businesses through the ongoing application of our active ownership approach.”

Alex Fortescue, Alex Cooper-Evans and Sarah Williams are responsible for the investment in AXIO Group.

Electra has seen a high level of investment activity since September 2015.  Including today’s announcement this period has seen realisations or agreements to sell of nearly £1 billion and new investments of over £200 million. Realisations announced since September 2015 include the exits of Daler-Rowney, Elian, Kalle, MIMS and Zensar Technologies, the partial realisations of Allflex, Hollywood Bowl and Premier Asset Management, and the proceeds from the refinancing of the Park Resorts Group at the time of its merger with Parkdean Holidays. New investments include the buyouts of Photobox Group and Retirement Bridge Group and investments in two CLOs.

Epiris refers to Epiris LLP acting on behalf of its client Electra Private Equity PLC.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Andrew Honnor, Matthew Goodman, Matthieu Roussellier, Greenbrook Communications
+44 (0)20 7952 2000

Nicholas Board and Andrew Kenny, Epiris
+44 (0)20 7306 3902

Note to Editors:

About Epiris LLP
Epiris is an independent private equity fund manager with over 25 years' experience. During this time it has invested in excess of £4.7 billion in over 200 deals. As at 31 March 2016, the firm had funds under management of
£2 billion.

Epiris’ flexible investment strategy allows it to invest broadly across the private equity market with a particular focus on Buyouts and Co-investments, Secondaries and Debt.

The firm's major client is Electra Private Equity PLC (“Electra”), a private equity investment trust which has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1976. Electra’s long-term investment performance has been consistently superior to private equity and other benchmarks. Over the ten years to 31 March 2016, Electra has seen diluted NAV per share growth of 228%. This is more than seven times the NAV per share return of the Morningstar Private Equity Index (ex. Electra). It is also equivalent to a ten-year annualised return of 13%, in the upper part of Electra’s target range of 10-15% over the long-term.

For further information please visit www.electrapartners.com.

Epiris LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

About AXIO Group
AXIO Group manages a portfolio of market-leading information businesses providing critical, and often industry-standard, information and tools. Operating in 12 countries worldwide, the group’s brands include Vidal in the healthcare sector, TechInsights in the intellectual property sector, OAG in the global aviation sector and RISI in the forest products sector.

For further information, please visit www.axiogroup.net