The Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland Private Equity team in Warsaw has acted on the sell side on Abris Capital Partners’ acquisition of shares in the leading fillers and cosmeceutical manufacturer ITP, well-known on the local market for soft tissues fillers for its Neauvia brand.
ITP, based in Warsaw, has five subsidiaries in Italy, Germany, Poland and Switzerland. Apart from manufacturing fillers and cosmeceutical products in Italy and Switzerland, ITP also distributes medical devices to health and beauty clinics and wellness equipment to fitness centres.
The signed deal marks the significant buyout from third Abris CEE Mid Market Fund, which was raised in 2018. Abris Capital is an accomplished private equity investor, focusing exclusively on equity investments in Central and Eastern European countries. Abris Capital Partners was established in 2007 to pursue mid-size, growth-oriented investments in Poland and other CEE countries.
ITP S.A. was founded in Poland in 2006, by Gabriel Drigo, Dominik Śliwowski and others, as a biomedical distributor company. It has since created its own R&D and its own products and devices—Neauvia, Zaffiro and ITP Cosmeceuticals – and become one of the leading soft tissues fillers and cosmeceuticals manufacturers in Poland, with its own brands, as well as a distributor of wellness equipment and medical devices across Europe and globally.
The team advising the founders included partners Michał Karwacki (head of PE & VC), Ewa Szlachetka (head of M&A and capital markets), counsel Renata Patoka, counsel Anna Derdak (head of tax), senior associate Natalia Burchardt, associates Marek Tołcz and Zofia Piekarczyk.
Michał Karwacki, who joined the firm as a partner in April 2018, is responsible for the growth of the private equity and venture capital practice at Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland. He has over 18 years of experience providing legal advice to businesses in the M&A departments of international law firms. The team he heads offers comprehensive legal support for investments by private equity and venture capital funds in portfolio companies and in exiting investments, with a particular emphasis on companies from the sectors of new technologies, innovative products, cosmetics, foods, TMT and FMCG.
