IK Investment Partners’ (IK) IK Small Cap II Fund is to acquire Mabtech, a specialist in immune monitoring. The founders and management team will continue to be invested in the business, while Merieux Equity Partners (MxEP) will also acquire a minority stake.
Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Founded in Sweden in 1986, Mabtech has gained worldwide recognition for its monoclonal antibodies and technical innovation capabilities and is viewed as a pioneer within the growing detection platform techniques of ELISpot and FluoroSpot. To complement its offering, the Company successfully entered the instruments market by launching its first reader, IRIS, in December 2018. Mabtech’s products are used by researchers and companies worldwide to study immune responses in eg cancer, allergy, infectious diseases as well as to monitor vaccine trials.
“Mabtech has become a well-reputable brand worldwide due to their high quality, innovation and excellent customer service, supporting their customers to obtain optimised test results with limited variability. The deal team has followed the company for several years and we understood this was a unique opportunity to acquire a global leader in a niche market and we are delighted to be the founders’ preferred partner for Niklas and his experienced team,” says Erik Ingemarsson, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK Small Cap II Fund.
“We describe Mabtech as a company ‘founded by researchers for researchers’. Our success is built on long-term relationships with our clients and employees, and as we started planning for our next phase of growth, it was clear that we needed a partner who shares our values and vision. We could not be more happy about this exciting new partnership,” says Niklas Ahlborg, CEO of Mabtech.
Benoit Chastaing, Senior Partner at Merieux Equity Partners, adds: “We are pleased to partner with IK Investment Partners, founders and Mabtech management team, to invest in a reference player in the immunoassays market. This attractive and growing segment has been a core focus for MxEP and we aim at bringing our expertise and industrial network to accompany Mabtech in its development together with IK.”
The investment in Mabtech builds on IK’s strong track record in healthcare, following its successful sale of Ellab, a global supplier of thermal validation solutions, to EQT in September 2019, and its acquisition of LAP Laser, a leading German provider of laser positioning systems, in July 2019.
The transaction represents the 8th investment made by the IK Small Cap II Fund, and the team included Erik Ingemarsson, Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Henrik Geijer, Viktor Josefsson and Patrik Stockhaus.
Completion of the transaction is expected during December.