Ares in the kennel for $1b-plus VetPartners auction
There’s another dog in the fight for veterinary chain VetPartners.
Street Talk can reveal US investment giant Ares has emerged in the auction run by the Wall Street investment bank Jefferies, and is preparing to submit a binding offer. The firm will face off against Swedish private equity investor EQT Partners and buyout fund Affinity Equity Partners who have both made puppy dog eyes at the business.
Jefferies has highlighted VetPartners “successful M&A track-record resulting in 228 clinics acquired since 2016. Michelle Smith
As this column has previously reported, the country’s largest veterinary chain is slated to fetch as much as $1.4 billion in the sale, based on the low double-digit earnings multiple paid by AustralianSuper and Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to acquire45 per cent of vet chain Greencross from TPG Capital last year.
Materials distributed to prospective buyers show VetPartners, owned by California headquartered National Veterinary Associates (NVA), has 267 clinics between Australia, New Zealand and Singapore – 253 general practice locations and 14 emergency facilities – and revenues in the 12 months to June 30 of $661 million.
Affinity Equity Partners has hired Macquarie Capital’s bankers to steer it through the auction, while EQT has drafted in Morgan Stanley.
But Ares – which is running the deal out of the US – may have the inside running, not least because the vets and pets sector has been a happy hunting ground for the alternatives manager, including an investment in Oaktree Capital Management-backed veterinary healthcare group UNAVETS last year. Ares also committed £595m ($1.1 billion) in financing to back BC Partners’ acquisition of UK-based Vetpartners in 2018.
More interesting, however, is
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