Who will buy Fleming?
publication date: Nov 3, 2009
The largest French hospital chain, Generale de Sante, has put Fleming, the
largest Italian diagnostic lab group, up for sale and is also to divest its French
lab business. So who will buy Fleming?
Fleming is an impressive business group sales, including some imaging will come to EUR 52m in 2009 with EBITA margins of 21%. The margins reflect its position as the leader in the reference market - some 70% of its sales is from tests carried out for other labs who refer esoteric tests to Fleming. Chief executive claims that Fleming has some 20% of this EUR 150m market.
The company looks a natural fit for either Duke Street-owned Biomnis,which claims 60% of the French reference market, or IK Invest-owned Groupe Cerba which claims 40%. Both private equity backers said they were planned to buy reference labs abroad when they took over these companies and so it will be interersting to see whether they will now step up to the mark for a business which enjoys rather better margins than they do. Other obvious buiyers would include Sonic, but we hear that the quoted Australian group is less keen, worried by the political unpredicatability of Italy's 20 regions who control and run healthcare.
GDS's French lab arm with sales of EUR 60m is an altogether less impressive business. For starters, thanks to French law, GDS only has a 25% stake in each of the 20 small labs. This business is most unlikely to sell until the French National Assembly finally changes the law and allows corporates to own laboratories 100% - today ownership is reserved for the pathologist or biologiste profession in France. Earlier this year, Eric Souetre CEO at Labco was confidently forecasting that this would happen in 2009. Now it looks as though it will slip into 2010, nor is it clear that all the ownership restraints will be removed.
Fleming is an impressive business group sales, including some imaging will come to EUR 52m in 2009 with EBITA margins of 21%. The margins reflect its position as the leader in the reference market - some 70% of its sales is from tests carried out for other labs who refer esoteric tests to Fleming. Chief executive claims that Fleming has some 20% of this EUR 150m market.
The company looks a natural fit for either Duke Street-owned Biomnis,which claims 60% of the French reference market, or IK Invest-owned Groupe Cerba which claims 40%. Both private equity backers said they were planned to buy reference labs abroad when they took over these companies and so it will be interersting to see whether they will now step up to the mark for a business which enjoys rather better margins than they do. Other obvious buiyers would include Sonic, but we hear that the quoted Australian group is less keen, worried by the political unpredicatability of Italy's 20 regions who control and run healthcare.
GDS's French lab arm with sales of EUR 60m is an altogether less impressive business. For starters, thanks to French law, GDS only has a 25% stake in each of the 20 small labs. This business is most unlikely to sell until the French National Assembly finally changes the law and allows corporates to own laboratories 100% - today ownership is reserved for the pathologist or biologiste profession in France. Earlier this year, Eric Souetre CEO at Labco was confidently forecasting that this would happen in 2009. Now it looks as though it will slip into 2010, nor is it clear that all the ownership restraints will be removed.