Fundraising and M&A activity

Written By Guest User

Healthcare M&A is Growing

The Norwegian healthcare market has seen growing M&A activity in recent years with more than 100 transactions executed in our target segments since 2015*.

We see a clear step-up in number of transactions from 2017 and onwards compared to 2015 and 2016: 

  • Transaction volumes are driven by both strategic buyers and private equity

  • Care and medical clinics stand out with the highest number of transactions across the period

The peak-year 2017 is partly explained by particularly high activity in the care segment when private equity owned assets executed on its buy-and-build strategy completing multiple transactions (e.g. Ecura and Unicare). We also see a steadily growing number of software transactions with 4 transactions completed in 2021.

Source: Merger Market Analysis, Danske Bank.
Illustration: Lillian Ayla Ersoy

Regarding valuation levels, there is a limited number of transactions with publicly available deal values and/or multiples, but we still observe the following:

  • Software transactions generally stand out with relatively rich valuations and we have historically seen transactions complete at an EV/Sales LTM (LTM= last 12 months) multiple ranges of 5-10x

  • Within medical clinics, we have observed a clear difference in valuations for platform transactions (e.g. portfolio of clinics) vs. standalone clinics. Platform transactions have typically been done at higher levels (12-15x LTM EBITDA compared to 6-9x LTM EBITDA for standalone clinics).

 *Transactions involving a Norwegian target identified by Danske Bank (please note that a number of transactions are small and not publicly announced/reported)

Contribution by
Vibeke Vier Simensen
Head of Healthcare, Corporate Banking, Danske Bank Norway

Guest User
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