EQT acquires Meine Radiologie from Triton and blikk from DBAG

Frank­furt am Main — Triton sells Meine Radio­lo­gie to EQT Infra­struc­ture — with a remar­kable balance sheet. Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) successfully comple­tes its invest­ment in the radio­logy group blikk with the sale to EQT. EQT intends to merge the two compa­nies into an even larger radio­logy chain.

Successful exit at Triton: The private equity inves­tor sells the radio­logy chain Meine Radio­lo­gie Holding to EQT Infra­struc­ture. They are also acqui­ring the Blikk radio­logy group from DBAG, which also expects high proceeds from the sale.

Triton was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Roth­schild, White & Case, Gibson Dunn, EY and L.E.K. Consul­ting. Accor­ding to an insi­der, the leverage is up to 6.5x Ebitda.

Triton had acqui­red Meine Radio­lo­gie, which at the time still opera­ted under the name “Deut­sche Radio­lo­gie Holding”, directly from the then owner Tempus Capi­tal in Janu­ary 2019 as part of an “off-market dialo­gue” that star­ted back at the end of 2018. The finan­cial inves­tor made the invest­ment from its first smal­­ler-midcap fund; in the mean­time, Triton is alre­ady inves­t­ing from its second midmar­ket fund.

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the contract. DBAG and DBAG Fund VII conti­nue to see good deve­lo­p­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties for blikk and are ther­e­fore inves­t­ing a signi­fi­cant portion of the return flow in a re-inves­t­­ment of up to 15 percent; DBAG accounts for up to three percen­tage points of this. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the current quar­ter, subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory approvals.

With the tran­sac­tion, DBAG reali­zes proceeds from the sale that are signi­fi­cantly higher than the valua­tion of the invest­ment in DBAG’s most recent IFRS inte­rim finan­cial state­ments (March 31, 2021). The addi­tio­nal, unplan­ned value added amounts to around 26 million euros. The net asset value of the private equity invest­ments and the Group’s net income increase by this amount.

This value contri­bu­tion was not included in the fore­cast for the net asset value of the private equity invest­ments as of Septem­ber 30, 2021 and the Group’s earnings for fiscal 2020/2021, which was last confirmed on May 12, 2021. DBAG had most recently expec­ted the net asset value of the private equity invest­ment to be between 450 and 505 million euros (before net inflows from the capi­tal increase) as of Septem­ber 30, 2021, and conso­li­da­ted net income for fiscal 2020/2021 to be between 70 and 80 million euros. DBAG is curr­ently prepa­ring its quar­terly state­ment as of June 30, 2021. This will take into account the unplan­ned value contri­bu­tion from the tran­sac­tion. The two above-mentio­­ned ratios may be influen­ced by further posi­tive or nega­tive effects from the valua­tion of the remai­ning port­fo­lio compa­nies as of the report­ing date of June 30, 2021 and by other findings in the course of prepa­ring the finan­cial statements.

First sale of the DBAG Fund VII portfolio
The sale of the invest­ment in the blikk Group is the first sale of a manage­ment buy-out (MBO) from the DBAG Fund VII port­fo­lio. The fund had struc­tu­red ten MBOs between 2017 and 2021; the fund’s invest­ment period has not yet ended. With DBAG Fund VII, DBAG imple­men­ted the concept of a so-called top-up fund for the first time: It makes it possi­ble to invest up to 200 million euros of equity in indi­vi­dual tran­sac­tions, more than twice the amount other­wise targe­ted. 105.7 million was inves­ted in the blikk Group, also using the top-up fund. 18.7 million of this amount is attri­bu­ta­ble to DBAG, which so far holds a calcu­la­ted share of around eleven percent in blikk. The radio­logy group’s MBO was agreed in March 2017, but due to a complex appr­oval process, it did not take effect until May 2019.

The radio­logy group blikk (www.blikk.de) combi­nes nume­rous radio­lo­gi­cal and nuclear medi­cine care centers (MVZ) with nearly 30 loca­ti­ons as well as a hospi­tal. Regio­nal focal points exist in North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia (Bochum/Herne/Unna) and in Berlin. Appro­xi­m­ately 150 physi­ci­ans provide care to about one million pati­ents annu­ally in the prac­ti­ces. The entire range of radio­lo­gi­cal and nuclear medi­cine services is offe­red, from conven­tio­nal X‑rays, mammo­gra­phy, ultra­sound, fluo­ro­scopy, angio­gra­phy and compu­ted tomo­gra­phy to inter­ven­tio­nal radio­logy and magne­tic reso­nance imaging (MRI). In addi­tion to daily routine radio­logy, the blikk group provi­des medi­cal specia­lists and experts for all areas (e.g. neuro­ra­dio­logy, cardiac imaging, onco­lo­gi­cal radio­logy, rheu­ma­to­lo­gi­cal radio­logy, pedia­tric radio­logy, prostate imaging) for diffi­cult and rare ques­ti­ons as well as for special pati­ent needs due to its size and expe­ri­ence, in addi­tion to the appro­priate equip­ment technology.

One of the leading provi­ders of radio­lo­gi­cal services in Germany
In the past four years, the Group has grown by adding further MVZs and sites; further acqui­si­ti­ons are plan­ned. Group sales for the current year are expec­ted to be around 103 million euros, some 50 million euros more than at the start of the invest­ment. Since then, inten­sive efforts have gone into impro­ving services for patients.

“It has been shown that with the funds of a finan­cial inves­tor, the services for pati­ents in this capi­­tal-inten­­sive medi­cine can be signi­fi­cantly impro­ved,” said Tom Alzin, member of the DBAG Manage­ment Board on the occa­sion of the signing of the agree­ment: “We want to parti­ci­pate in the further growth of the group through our return parti­ci­pa­tion along­side the new investor.”

“DBAG has been a great part­ner to us,” expres­sed Thilo-Andreas Witt­käm­per, MD, Mana­ging Part­ner of the blikk Group. And: “Now we will receive addi­tio­nal capi­tal for the deve­lo­p­ment of the Group and can further improve the medi­cal offe­ring and pati­ent care.

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests — predo­mi­nantly along­side DBAG funds — in well-posi­­tio­­ned medium-sized compa­nies with poten­tial. One focus for many years has been indus­try. An incre­asing propor­tion of equity invest­ments are in compa­nies in the growth sectors of broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services/software and health­care. The long-term, value-enhan­cing entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. Assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to €2.5 billion.