Private equity firm Agilitas has acquired Financiere Ionisos SAS (Ionisos), one of Europe’s leading providers of cold sterilisation services, from Naxicap Partners, for an undisclosed consideration.
Ionisos is the leading provider of cold sterilisation services in France and Spain. It is the only company licensed in France to offer all three cold sterilisation technologies: gamma irradiation, beta irradiation and Ethylene Oxide. Its services are used by multinational and local companies for the sterilisation of single-use products. These include medical devices, pharmaceutical, food and pharma packaging and cosmetics products. The business has annual revenues exceeding EUR20 million.
Since 2007, AtriA and Naxicap have assisted Ionisos in its international growth strategy, notably through its major acquisition in Spain and its greenfield development in China. Angèle Faugier, Member of the Board of Naxicap, says: “We are very pleased to have been able to back Ionisos’s management in its international development and growth over recent years. As of today we believe Ionisos and its management team is ideally prepared to seize market opportunities and further enhance the group’s growth, with the support of Agilitas”.
Agilitas is backing Ionisos’s management in an ambitious development plan, and will make available significant additional capital to grow the business in France by expanding its treatment capacity and enlarging its offering, so as to transform Ionisos into a truly pan-European business.
In addition to making this investment, Agilitas will also appoint Jean-Philippe Milon as chairman of the steering committee for the Ionisos Group. He has previously held senior management roles within Bayer Schering Pharma AG, most recently as Executive Committee member and Senior VP of Business Development and M&A.
Martin Calderbank, Partner at Agilitas, says: “Ionisos fits perfectly into the highly regulated business space on which we focus and has great potential for transformation. It has an excellent management team led by Michel Gominet, and that team will be further strengthened by the appointment of Jean-Philippe Milon.”
Michel Gominet, President of Ionisos, says: “We look forward to working with Agilitas to strengthen our capacities in serving our customers and accompanying them in their growth path, and to unlocking the potential in our business and the wider market.”
Serge Touati, Partner at Agilitas and joining Martin Calderbank on the Committee of Ionisos Group, commented: “Our healthcare sector expertise and our pan-European approach will be at the service of management to participate in the transformation of the industry.”
