Cerba, a portfolio company of EQT and PSP Investments, started to negotiate a conciliation for restructuring the debt of its French subsidiary.
Frech diagnostic player Cerba HealthCare, a portfolio asset of EQT and PSP Investments sold Lifeanalytics, an Italian Testing, Inspection & Certification (TIC) firm, to Paris-listed Eurofins Scientific, a global provider of laboratory and bioanalysis services (Discoperi).
Cerba HealthCare, EQT and PSP Investments retained UBS as financial advisor, PedersoliGattai (legal), Deloitte (tax) and EY-Parthenon for the vendor financial due diligence. Eurofins appointed Dentons for counsel and Bernoni Grant Thornton for financial and tax due diligence.
Investindustrial sold Lifeanalytics (fka Lifebrain) to Cerba HealthCare in 2022 for above billion euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Since then, Lifeanalytics grew to 75 million euros revenues and 900 workers through M&A and organic growth.
The sale of Lifeanalytics is the first outcome of the assets disposal programme that emerged during Cerba’s restructuring process started in early September and filed with the Commercial Court of Nanterre by entering a debt restructuring conciliation procedure (Bloomberg).
In June 2026, Cerba and its bondholders reached an agreement to continue negotiations on the restructuring and to extend until 27 August, Thursday, the grace period for coupon payment due on 15 May, Friday, on the senior notes of Chrome HoldCo, the group’s parent company (see here a previous post by BeBeez). On 28 August, Friday, the bondholders agreed to a further extension regarding interest payments, enabling the group to continue negotiations (Prospect News).
On 3 July, Friday, S&P Global Ratings improved Chrome HoldCo rating from SD (Selective Default) to CCC- and negative outlook after the failure to pay the coupon. The agency continues to consider the group’s capital structure as unsustainable, due to its extremely high level of financial leverage, weak coverage of fixed costs and the forecast of further negative operating cash flows.
S&P also points out that in 2025 Cerba generated 1.9 billion euros sales and an ebitda of 421 million (341 million in 2024). In 1Q26, sales dropped by 0.5% with an ebitda of 112 million (112.8 million in 1Q25). For 2026 S&P expect Cerba’s adjusted ebitda to amount to 350-360 million euros with a 70-80 million cash burn after lease payments. In June 2026, S&P expected the adjusted leverage to be above 14X whilst the shareholders already made 100 million euros of new funding available in December 2025 to support liquidity during the restructuring.
In November 2025, Cerba indicated its intention to explore the sale of its Italian ICT operations. The assets were of interest to Eurofins and the Australian firm ALS on the ground of a 50 million euros enterprise value, according to market rumours.
For Eurofins Scientific, a 7.3 billion euros sales company with a 1.56 billion EBITDA, the transaction is a small add-on following the July 2026 signing of an agreement with Element Materials Technology for the acquisition of its North American life sciences analytical services division on the ground of an enterprise value of 400 million US dollars. The division owns a range of testing services for biopharmaceuticals, environmental analysis and food analysis that delivers through a network of 27 laboratories and facilities. The division employs around 750 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and is expected to generate annual revenue of above 150 million US dollars in 2026. (press release).
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