Paris, February 7, 2022 – NextStage AM and the reference executive shareholders (the “Entrepreneurs”) of the Eurobio Scientific group (ISIN: FR0013240934, Mnemonic: ALERS), Denis Fortier and Jean-Michel Carle Grandmougin, announce the signing of an agreement for the realization by NextStage AM of a €35,5m investment in a newly formed holding company with the Entrepreneurs (who will hold 56,5% of the capital, the balance of 43,5% being held by NextStage SCA and the FPCI Pépites et Territoires), to which the latter will contribute part and sell the balance of their stake, and which will hold at the end of these transactions approximately 28,3% of the capital of Eurobio Scientific (on the basis of a unit price per Eurobio Scientific share of €25,28). This first co-investment between NextStage SCA (NEXTS) and the “Pépites & Territoires” program by AXA France & NextStage AM aims to set up a strategic partnership with Entrepreneurs to support a new stage in the development of the Eurobio Scientific group. . The implementation of this agreement, the main stages of which are summarized in the Appendix, is subject to the usual conditions precedent, including obtaining authorization from the competent competition authorities. It should happen in the next 2-3 months.
NextStage AM and the Entrepreneurs of Eurobio Scientific, Denis Fortier and Jean-Michel Carle Grandmougin, have thus decided to join forces within a company newly created for this purpose, baptized EurobioNext, which will hold, at the end of the operations contribution and sale of securities held directly by Entrepreneurs, approximately 28,3% of the capital of the Eurobio Scientific group.
"Pépites et Territoires", labeled France Relance, is an investment program with a target size of €500m launched by Patrick Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of AXA France, in partnership with NextStage AM and which aims to strengthen the equity of Innovative French SMEs and ETIs established in our territories and to support entrepreneurs in the future stages of the development of their company. " Pépites et Territoires is proof of AXA's commitment to supporting French SMEs and ETIs that bring employment, innovation and growth to the heart of our regions. We are pleased that this first investment from the program promotes the development of a particularly innovative and promising company in the field of preventive medicine.” says Patrick Cohen, CEO of AXA France.
This first investment is made in the listed group Eurobio Scientific, a leading player in the molecular biology market at the heart of the disruptions linked to smart health, and in particular around in vitro diagnostic tests, in the fields of transplantation, immunology, and infectious diseases.
Based in Les Ulis (91) in the south of the Paris region, the Eurobio Scientific group, led by Denis Fortier and Jean-Michel Carle Grandmougin, two talented entrepreneurs, who have achieved a remarkable career in the field of molecular biology and in particular since the acquisition of Eurobio by Diaxonhit in 2017 (listed biotech taken over by Entrepreneurs), has revealed all its agility and the relevance of its positioning with the COVID-19 crisis. Indeed, the group announced on March 25, 2020 the CE marking for its proprietary EBX 041 SARS CoV2 test, developed specifically for the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19.
Eurobio Scientific, which is listed on Euronext Growth, was thus able to accelerate the strengthening of its R&D teams in 2020 in order to continue developing its activity of designing and producing proprietary tests. This strategy has enabled the group to cultivate its technological lead, as evidenced by the announcement on November 30, 2021 of the launch of the first multiplex PCR* test for the real-time and simultaneous screening of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the Delta and Omicron variants .
Thanks to its commitment to the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic combined with the maintenance of the organic growth of traditional activities, the group achieved remarkable performance in the 2020 financial year, posting a consolidated turnover of €190m (including €117m related to COVID-19 diagnostic tests and instruments) and consolidated ebitda of €88m. In 2021, Eurobio Scientific was able to maintain its technological lead and achieved consolidated revenue of €184m (including €103m related to COVID-19 sales, despite lower prices for these products and services).
With its fleet of installed machines, which has more than doubled since the beginning of 2020, the Entrepreneurs wish to start a new stage in the development of Eurobio Scientific to enable the group to consolidate its position as an agile and innovative leader in the specialty IVD market by strengthening its development of proprietary products combined with the continued expansion of its international activities.
This association through EurobioNext will be accompanied by the strengthening of the Eurobio Scientific Board of Directors with the entry of Grégoire Sentilhes, President and co-founder of NextStage AM and representative of EurobioNext, and Pierre Germain (former Strategy Director of Sanofi, Ex-CEO of Ethypharm, Ex-Executive Vice-President Capgemini), as censor. Denis Fortier and Jean-Michel Carle Grandmougin chose NextStage AM as their partner at a key moment in the group's history. NextStage AM brings all its experience in supporting the growth of innovative French SMEs and ETIs in their external growth strategy, international development and the strengthening of the group's technological and digital know-how.
One of the key objectives identified by the Entrepreneurs is the constitution of a high quality M&A team insofar as the group can count today on gross cash of more than €100m and additional debt capacity to roll out a program ambitious acquisitions.
“This first investment of the Pépites et Territoires program in Eurobio Scientific marks an important step and has strong meaning and symbolism. It targets a company in the field of molecular biology, with a remarkable trajectory, a French nugget that has become thanks to the talent of its Entrepreneurs, and its innovation strategy, a leading player in the health crisis. Through the deployment of its ambitious development and innovation plan, we want to support Eurobio Scientific to strengthen a company that is even more at the forefront of the challenges of prevention in medical devices upstream of curation. Thus, we are convinced that Eurobio Scientific will play an important role in the development of both preventive medicine and smart health, one of the three major disruptions of the industrial revolution accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis”, comments Grégoire Sentilhes, President and co-founder of NextStage AM and manager of NextStage.
“The pandemic of COVID-19 has shed new light on infectious disease testing and brought our group into a new dimension. We now have specialized skills and very solid fundamentals to enable us to strengthen our operational organization and pursue our recruitment policy to support our growth. NextStage AM, which has a strong "entrepreneurial investor" culture and an ability to properly assimilate our strategic issues, seemed to us to be the right partner to achieve this, to strengthen us internationally and to enable us to carry out new acquisitions in order to become one of the great champions in the In Vitro Diagnostics market", continues Denis Fortier, Deputy CEO of Eurobio Scientific.
“After two years of very strong growth, we are entering an important new phase in the group's development to consolidate its performance and build a champion in specialty diagnostics in France and around the world. At NextStage AM, we felt a real ability to provide support in the strategic issues that present themselves to us today (structuring of teams, strategic thinking, etc.). Given our available cash, we have a long-term investment challenge to strengthen our position in the smart diagnostics market. We are very happy with this partnership which makes sense and which aims to build Eurobio Scientific's "next stage", concludes Jean-Michel Carle Grandmougin, Chairman and CEO of Eurobio Scientific.
List of participants :
Eurobio Scientific : Jean-Michel Carle Grandmougin (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), Denis Fortier (Deputy Chief Executive Officer) and Hervé Duchesne de Lamotte (Deputy Chief Executive Officer)
NextStage AM : Grégoire Sentilhes (Chairman), Florent Saint Leger (Director of Listed Investments), Arthur Vigneras (Director of Investments), Mounia Hakam (Business Manager)
Strategic and scientific advice : Pierre Germain, Emmanuelle Deponge (Touline), and IQVIA (Pierre-Antoine André and Laura Bonini)
Consulting Entrepreneurs: Jones Day (Renaud Bonnet, Florent Le Prado)
NextStage AM Consulting : Viguié Schmidt & Associates (Nicolas Viguié, Louis Chenard, Tanguy Grimald)
Financial DD : EY (Marc-André Audisio, Constance Hauville-Pontet)
Legal, fiscal, social SD : Lamartine Conseil (Stéphane Rodriguez, Ugo Audouard, Audrey Billon)
Press contacts :
NextStage AM: Jonathan Boudin - jbo@nextstage.com - 01 44 29 99 04
Shan : Guillaume Duhamel – guillaume.duhamel@shan.fr – 06 13 81 00 92 / Claire Hilbert – claire.hilbert@shan.fr - 06 15 80 91 30
Eurobio Scientific Group : Denis Fortier and Hervé Duchesne de Lamotte. Phone. +33(0) 1 69 79 64 80
Calyptus : Mathieu Calleux / Gregory Bosson – Investor Relations Tel. +33(1) 53 65 68 68 – eurobio-scientific@calyptus.net
Find the press release in pdf format: PR – First strategic investment of the “Pépites et Territoires” by AXA France & NextStage AM program in Eurobio Scientific via the creation of a joint holding company with the Entrepreneurs
