Disposal of Hippocrates Holding S.p.A. to Antin Infrastracture Partners

On 16^th November 2020, Antin Infrastracture Partners SAS (“Antin”) signed an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Hippocrates Holding S.p.A. (“Hippocrates” or the “Company”). As part of the agreement, both co-founders will reinvest in the business and will retain their current role of co-CEOs. Additionally, part of the current shareholders will reinvest alongside the two co-founders in the business.

On 16^th November 2020, Antin Infrastracture Partners SAS (“Antin”) signed an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Hippocrates Holding S.p.A. (“Hippocrates” or the “Company”). As part of the agreement, both co-founders will reinvest in the business and will retain their current role of co-CEOs. Additionally, part of the current shareholders will reinvest alongside the two co-founders in the business.

Founded in 2018 by Davide Tavaniello and Rodolfo Guarino, Hippocrates is today the first and largest Italian independent chain of retail pharmacies, with a network of over 120 pharmacies across northern and central Italy. The Company recorded pro-forma revenues of over €200 million with a pro-forma EBITDA of ca. €50 million.

The sale process, launched in mid-September, has been extremely competitive since the very beginning and has attracted interest from a broad spectrum of primary international PEs as well as strategic buyers. 25+ potential counterparties amongst financial and strategic players were firstly admitted to the sale process, with phase I of the auction attracting 8 non-binding offers. Four counterparties – all international and renowned private equity funds – were finally admitted to the second stage in mid-October and 3 binding offers were received on November 12th. The final offer submitted by Antin represents an implicit EBITDA (pro-forma) multiple in excess of 14x.

Mediobanca also provided a Fairness Opinion to the Board of Directors of Hippocrates in relation to the selected final offer submitted by Antin.

Antin is a leading independent infrastructure private equity firm based in Paris, London and New York. It is fully owned by its 14 partners and employs more than 100 professionals globally. Antin has raised more than €15 billion from more than 180 blue-chip international institutional investors and has made 27 investments up to date.

With the support of Antin, Hippocrates enters a new stage of development which will focus on pursuing the buy&build strategy within the very fragmented Italian pharmacy market and delivering best in class services to patients, with the aim of becoming the leading proximity healthcare provider in Italy.

The signing of this transaction represents an outstanding achievement for the franchise, with a very competitive and sizable deal completed in a short timeframe, with less than two months from dispatch of the Information Memorandum and signing of the Transaction, notwithstanding the second wave of Covid emergency. Such achievement further confirms the leading role and capabilities of Mediobanca in the Italian Mid Corporate & Sponsors Solutions M&A space, while also strengthening the bank’s relationship and recognition with global leading private equity firms.