Alantra advises Five Arrows on its investment in Sygnature Discovery
SECTORHealthcare
ServiceM&A
Alantra, the independent global mid-market investment banking firm, has advised Five Arrows Principal Investments, the corporate private equity arm of Rothschild & Co, on its investment in Sygnature Discovery. The transaction enables the exit of Phoenix Equity Partners, which invested in the business in 2017.
Sygnature is a world-class provider of outsourced drug discovery services to leading pharma and biotech companies. The Company operates from two state-of-the-art science facilities in the UK, at BioCity in Nottingham and Alderley Park in Cheshire, and employs over 450 staff, most of whom are PhD-level scientists. Additionally, the company has an office presence in the Boston area as well as South San Francisco in the US. Sygnature provides integrated drug discovery and preclinical services to clients across eight key therapeutic areas, including oncology, neuroscience, and inflammation & immunology, and has an outstanding track record of scientific excellence.
Advising Five Arrows on this transaction extends Alantra’s successful track record in the pharma services sector and follows recent transactions including the sales of Prescient Healthcare, Helios Medical Communications and 90TEN, Bridgepoint’s acquisition of Fishawack Health and Synova Capital’s investment in Charnwood Molecular.
The deal was led by director Tom Cowap. He was supported by Yeboah Mensah Dika, Mike Falzon and Daisy Miller from Alantra’s Healthcare team.
Tom Cowap, director at Alantra and lead advisor on the transaction commented, “Sygnature Discovery’s ongoing success is a testament to the quality of the business, and to the talent and entrepreneurialism of the UK pharma services sector. We’re proud to have watched Sygnature’s growth over the years as one of the leading constituents in the Alantra Pharma Fast 50 – it has placed every year since we launched the report in 2017. Five Arrows will be an excellent partner to support the business’s ongoing success and we’re excited to watch the next chapter of Sygnature’s growth unfold.”
