DE Group completes £37m MBO
YORKSHIRE pharmaceutical wholesaler DE Group has announced the management buyout of the business by managing director Mark Gulliford and financial director Andy Wilson.
Funding to support the MBO has been provided by RBS Invoice Finance (RBSIF) which structured a £37m asset based lending package.
The deal has also involved a number of leading Yorkshire-based advisers.
The Doncaster based firm employs 300 staff and is one of the UK’s largest national short line pharmaceutical wholesalers which has operated for more than 30 years.
The firm will continue to operate as before and retain the same management team and staff.
Collectively the DE Group consists of DE Pharmaceuticals which merged with Doncaster Pharmaceuticals in 2007, National Generics in the Midlands, Eclipse Generics in Scotland, Crosspharma Pharmaceuticals in Northern Ireland and Eurodrug in the Republic of Ireland.
The combined force of these regional brands make DE Group a leading national player in short line pharmaceutical wholesaling operating from sites in Doncaster, Low Prudhoe in Northumberland, Oldbury in the West Midlands, Belfast and East Kilbride.
Advisors for the deal were KPMG’s corporate finance team, led by Christian Mayo, partner and Mark Booth, director.
Legal advice was provided for the client by Sintons, headed by Christopher Welch, partner in the company and commercial team together with Alok Loomba, partner in the real estate team and associate Adrian Dye, and DLA Piper headed by Sarah Day, Anna Robson, and Richard Normington acting as advisors to RBSIF.
Mark Gulliford, managing director at DE Group, said: “As far as our customers are concerned, it is business as usual, although we’ll now be able to focus on improving the high quality service they’ve come to rely on and offer even better deals thanks to our unrivalled buying power. This is an exciting period for Andy and myself having both worked within the business for a number of years.
“We are firmly focused on growth and our ambition is to cement DE Group’s position as the UK’s largest national short line pharmaceutical wholesalers.”
