Bioclinica seeking $1.3B sale: Reuters

By Ben Adams May 26, 2016 3:26pm

It’s a veritable free-for-all market for CROs as yet another contract research group--this time Bioclinica--is said to be seeking a major sale.

This is according to sources “familiar with the matter” talking to Reuters, who told the news wire that the Newtown, PA-based CRO is looking for a $1.3 billion sale.

It’s currently owned by buyout firm JLL Partners, which bought the company back in 2013 for an equity value of $123 million.

The sources said that it has now hired investment bank Jefferies LLC to run an auction for the company. They have declined to be identified because the discussions are private.

Since 2013, Bioclinica has been ramping up the deals, including with consulting firm Kinapse to help spread the adoption of its Compass technology last year, and its acquisition of clinical trial financial specialist Clinverse in January. A week later, it also signed a deal with Japan’s EPS for risk-based monitoring services.

BioClinica's profits have grown as a result, with annual earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization now approaching $100 million, according to the sources speaking to Reuters.

Nor is it the only CRO going for a sale: Just this week, SynteractHCR was sold by Gryphon to first-time buyers Amulet Capital for an undisclosed fee, with inVentiv also in line for a potential $100 million IPO.

INC Research ($INCR) is also said to be sought after by LabCorp ($LH), which itself bought NJ-based CRO Covance for around $6 billion last year.

Then there was the shocking announcement made in early May that NC-based Quintiles ($Q) will merge with Danbury-headquartered IMS Health in an all-stock, $9 billion merger-of-equals.

Cincinnati CRO Medpace, not wanting to be left out, is also looking to float for more than $1 billion, according again to reports from Reuters, also quoting people “familiar with the matter.”

- check out the Reuters story

CRO BioClinica