Charme Capital Partners sgr announced yesterday its first investment abroad targeting Igenomix, a Spanish company being one of the world’s leaders in the genetic pre-natal diagnosis. Igenomix was born in 2011 as a spin-off from Istituto Valentiano de Infertilidad (IVI) (see here the press release).
The deal is the first investment through Charme III fund, which has raised 500 million euros in the last year (see a previous post by BeBeez). Graham Snudden, co-founder of BlueGenome, a spin off from the Cambridge University, devloper of cornerstone technology in DNA sequencing, will be a minority co-investor in the deal with Mr. Snudden who will be a Board member of Igenomix.
Charme III fund will acquire a 75% stale in Igenomix, MF Milano Finanza writes today, while Igenomix’s scientific director and co-founder Carlos Simon (who owned a 30% stake) and Igenomix’s ceo David Jimenez (who owned a 5%) will reinvest for a minority. Sellers are co-founders Antonio Pellicer and José Remohí (each owning a 30%) and Carlo Bertomeu (Air Nostrum’s chairman) , who owned a 5%.
Thanks to Charme’s investment, Igenomix will have new cash to finance its international business development. The ocmpany has been growing by 50% per year since its start and is expected to close 2016 with 30 million euros in revenues.
Matteo Cordero di Montezemolo, son of Ferrari’s former chairman and ceo of Charme Capital partners sgr, said that “Igenomix is Charme III’s first investment and represents a great investment opportunity in a sector leader having huge growth potential, thanks to a proprietary know-how and an excellent management team”.
Advisors to sellers are Arcano (a Spanish m&a advisory boutique), Deloitte and Garrigues law firm, while Charme is supported by PwC and Araoz&Rueda law firm.
