Cerba HealthCare, a French diagnostic company that belongs to EQT and PSP Investments, said it reached an agreement with its bondholders for a further extension of talks about debt restructuring and defer to 27 August, Thursday, the grace period for the Luxembourg-listed high yield issuance coupon that was due in May 2026. The company explained that the creditors requested to enable discussions to continue with a view to identifying a lasting and sustainable solution to strengthen the group’s capital and financial structure.
Between 2017 and 2023, Cerba closed several acquisitions in Italy and purchased Lifebrain from Investindustrial (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The liabilitis are worth a total of 1.245 billion euros: 720 million euros senior secured notes with a 3.5% coupon maturing in 2028 and 525 million euros Senior Notes with a 5% coupon maturing in 2029.
On 22 May, Friday, Cerba launched a consent solicitation for asking the bondholders to approve a series of waivers relating to the French mandat ad hoc and conciliation proceedings currently underway, and to authorise the extension of the grace period for the coupon due on 15 May, Friday, on the senior notes.
Such consent solicitation replaced one of 15 May, Friday, for 420 million euros senior secured notes and 325 million euros di senior notes, that Cerba withdrew and relaunched with different terms. On 1 June, Monday, Cerba said it received the majority authorizations (press release).
In April 2026, S&P Global downgraded the bond from CCC- to CCC+, with negative outlook.
S&P said that in 2025 Cerba generated saled of 1.9 billion euros (in line with 2024) with an ebitda of 421 million (341 million in 2024). However, higher-than-expected non-recurring costs, may lead to an adjusted EBITDA lower than previous forecast and net operating cash flow (FOCF), excluding lease payments, of at least minus 70 million euros. The rating agency expects Cerba HealthCare to have a 4.9 billion euros or above 14X (13X) adjusted debt-to-asset ratio in 2025 while the path to liabilities reduction for the next 18 months will be lower.
However, S&P said that expects Cerba HealthCare to be able to meet its obligations to trade creditors, thanks to the liquidity-boosting facilities it attracted in December 2025 that include a additional funding of 100 million euros for supporting the restructuring process that shareholders made available.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said that Cerba’s investors are willing to inject a further 300 million in equity in return for a 25% haircut on the senior secured debt. However, main creditors turned down such offer. The company could fetch cash out of the sale of its TIC (Testing, Inspection & Certification) unit that could be of interest to trade buyers Eurofins and ALS. In November 2025, Cerba reportedly sounded the ground for the disposal of this 50 million worth asset with a turnover of 80 million euros.
Cerba HealthCare Italia has sales of 250 million and a 25% ebitda margin.
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