In December 2024, the vehicle attracted 600 million from Alpinvest, StepStone, and other investor and carried on the recapitalization of the Pharma group that received a 300 million credit line from Sixth Street
Gyrus Capital said its continuation fund for its portfolio company Essential Pharma reached a final closing of 700 million euros as it attracted more than 100 million in commitments in 1Q25 (Private Equity Wire) after having raised 600 million in December 2024 from lead investor AlpInvest (an asset of Carlyle, StepStone Group, the company’s managers, and others (press release).
In December 2024, Essential Pharma, also attracted a strategic financing facility of 300 million from Sixth Street (press release).
Gyrus Capital acquired the UK pharmaceutical company in 2019 and supported its international growth. After such a new transaction and the refinancing of the debt structure, Essential will deploy additional capital to develop its diversified drug portfolio through a successful acquisition and development strategy that ceo Emma Johnson will lead.
Lee Morley, a non-executive director since 2023, will replace Patrick Vink as Essential Pharma chairman. Lee has an experience of more than 30 years in the biopharma sector and a thorough knowledge of marketing strategy, pricing, reimbursement and product launches. He cofounded and led EUSA Pharma, a company that Milan-listed Recordati, a portfolio asset of CVC Capital Partners, acquired in 2022 (see here previous post by BeBeez).
Continuation funds investment is a consolidated trend for the private equity industry. An increasing number of firms carried out the transfer from an old fund under closure to a new vehicle one or more investees that are not considered efficient to sell today at current prices, with a view to significant further business growth in the future. In previous years, such deals did not catch the keen interest of Limited Partners which considered these transactions as a way to find an allocation for troubled companies. However, sentiment has since changed, because indeed in recent years these funds creates additional value (see here the front page report of BeBeez Magazine of 1 March 2025).
The investors opinions about such transaction is not unanimous though. The Financial Times quoted Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris as saying: “Continuation funds are the biggest scam ever, because the firms buy back the businesses that can’t sell”.
