Done deal: George Clinical sold for $500m after FIRB snag
George Clinical, the Sydney-headquartered contract research business, has rung up a big payday for its investors after Hillhouse Capital cleared deal-closure hurdles put up by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
It is understood the Asian investment house settled on the acquisition and will pay about $500 million for a controlling stake in George Clinical.
George Clinical runs drug and medical devices trials globally. Bloomberg
Sources said George Clinical’s majority shareholder, the George Institute for Global Health, has retained a small stake in the Australian business – about 20 per cent – while the company’s minority shareholder, Federation Asset Management, exited in full.
The two camps signed a deal in December but have been working on a solution for the patient data on George Clinical’s books, which pricked the regulator’s ears. The snag sparked expectations of an Australian superannuation fund or an asset manager coming in with Hillhouse to split the ownership and governance structures, Street Talk previously reported.
George Clinical provides biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics trials, across all phases and plenty of jurisdictions. The group was founded more than 20 years ago and has grown to 450 people across the Asia-Pacific region, US and Europe. It is based in Sydney.
The owners hired Bank of America and Lazard to test buyer interest last year, culminating in the two-part auction. It followed a host of other Australian clinical trials and testing M&A deals, with businesses mostly picked up by a range of private equity and strategic acquirers.
The company told suitors it could make $252.9 million revenue by the 2027 financial year and $72.6 million EBITDA,according to documents seen by Street
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