EQT wags tail for billion-dollar VetPartners; bids loom
One of Australia’s largest veterinary chains, VetPartners, has caught the attention of Swedish private equity investor EQT Partners.
VetPartners is expected to be worth $1.4 billion. Dan Peled
It is understood EQT Partners is taking an early look at VetPartners, which makes about $131 million a year in earnings and is up for sale via Wall Street investment bank Jefferies. Sources said EQT had run preliminary due diligence and was viewed by rival suitors as a key contender.
The buyout giant has chased furry deals aggressively over the past decade. It has owned European and North American vet roll-up IVC Evidensia and its 2500 clinics since 2014. It also invested in British insurer ManyPets, and tag-teamed with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to take London-listed veterinary drugmaker Dechra private for £4.46 billion ($8.9 billion).
EQT’s local deal makers only have until the end of the month to decide whether to lob a non-binding indicative proposal. Sources said Jefferies was running the process to a tight timetable and had given suitors only a couple of weeks to prepare preliminary offers. This was, in part, due to the global business’s impending initial public offering.
In late March, California headquartered National Veterinary Associates said it would split the $US6 billion-a-year ($9 billion) global business into two separate businesses: Ethos Veterinary Health would have 145 animal hospitals and $US2 billion annual revenue; and NVA would have 1400 locations including animal general practices, equine hospitals and pet resorts.
The separation was geared at floating the two businesses separately. And as a by-product, APAC-focused VetPartners landed on the auction block.
A flyer previously obtained by Street Talk
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