Pharma communications firm in £38m buyout
Knutsford-based Fishawack Group, a provider of scientific marketing and communication services to global pharmaceutical companies, has completed a management buyout which values the business at £38m.
Backed by mid-market private equity firm LDC, the investment is a tertiary buyout which the management team said will enable the company to accelerate its buy and build strategy.
Fishawack provides medical communications, market access and pharmacovigilance services to global pharmaceutical companies to drive the commercialisation of drug compounds.
Contracted with 15 of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Sanofi and Novartis, its services are typically provided from phase II/III clinical trial stage through to post-approval and last for the full lifecycle of the patents on compounds.
Headquartered in Knutsford, Cheshire, the company was founded in 2001 by Oliver Dennis and Dominic Miller, who both continue to lead the business.
It employs more than 230 people and operates across three sites in the UK, two in US and one in Switzerland.
The company made a pre-tax loss of £1.5m on a turnover of £25.3m for the year to the end of March 2016, latest accounts show.
The deal represents a strong exit for Growth Capital Partners, which supported the management team in a secondary buyout in 2013 and has seen the group more than double in size.
Oliver Dennis, chief executive of Fishawack, said: “With GCP’s support we have made significant progress with our growth strategy over the past few years and bringing LDC alongside us will enable us to build on this further as we aim to create the largest independent player serving the growing global medical affairs market.
“We have completed six acquisitions since inception and three with GCP, which has seen us bring in additional expertise, while also enhancing our geographical footprint in the key US market.
“We are an ambitious team and want to build on this further, continuing to strengthen our market-leading proposition and further building our presence internationally.”
The transaction was led by Simon Braham and Jonathan Bell at LDC in Manchester, and both will join the board as non-executive directors.
Simon Braham, investment director at LDC in Manchester, said: “Global pharmacos continue to invest heavily in the research and development of new drugs, and with treatments and applications becoming increasingly complex there is a need to further educate healthcare professionals to ensure the efficacy, safety and ultimately benefits of new drugs are thoroughly understood, which help to make improved prescribing decisions to help patients.
“Fishawack is very well-placed to meet this need and with the medical affairs industry valued at £6bn per year – almost 50% of which is outsourced – there is a clear opportunity to capitalise on.
“For us, it’s not just about market opportunity but backing the management teams at the driving wheels of the businesses we invest in. Oliver and Dominic have built a leading proposition and we’re looking forward to supporting them as they continue to build the business further.”
The deal marks the second investment of 2017 for LDC’s Manchester office and closely follows its support of pharmaceutical components manufacturer ChargePoint. It is also the fifth investment in the past eight months for the team, which has backed technology companies Mitrefinch and Giacom, and business services firm Ellis Whittam.
Fishawack and GCP were advised by BDO (Ruth Percival), with legal advice from Hill Dickinson (Craig Scott and Michael Murphy).
LDC was advised on its investment by Clearwater International (Carl Houghton, Wesley Fell-Smith, Dan Rossington, Mark Taylor and Tom Barnwell), with legal advice from Addleshaw Goddard (Paul Medlicott and George Danczuk) and tax advice from KPMG (Steven Heath and Chris Wilson).
