News

Nazca acquires a majority stake in the Spanish Grupo IMO

Nazca has closed an agreement for the acquisition, through its Fund Nazca III, of a majority stake in Grupo IMO, a Spanish company that is the leading provider of radiotherapy services for the treatment of cancer, with 15% market share in Spain.

With an approximate investment of €20M, Nazca Capital will become the majority shareholder in Grupo IMO through the direct acquisition of shares to several shareholders of the company as well as through the subscription of a significant capital increase. These funds will strengthen Grupo IMO balance sheet in order to support the company’s ambitious growth plans.

Doctor José Samblas, Chairman and Founder of Grupo IMO together with key members of the management team have participated in the deal reinvesting most of their stakes in Grupo IMO.

This is the fourth deal that Nazca Capital has completed in 2011, following the sale of Guzmán Gastronomía to Miura, the sale of Acens to Telefónica and the acquisition of Eurekakids. It is also the second deal of its Fund Nazca III. This acquisition is subject to the approval by Spanish anti-trust authorities.

Grupo IMO offers treatments to almost 5,000 patients per year through a network comprising 11 owned centres located in different regions of Spain: Castilla La Mancha, Murcia, Madrid, Alicante and Seville. With a team of 200 professionals Grupo IMO is the only competitor in the market specialised exclusively in offering radiotherapy services, and it is in a unique position to benefit from the potential outsourcing of these activities from both public and private hospitals.
Since its foundation 20 years ago, Grupo IMO has been the pioneer in implementing the most advanced radiotherapy techniques in the Spanish market. At present, the Group has 16 linear accelerators for advanced treatments, including equipments for robotized surgery (Cyberknife) or two Tomotherapy units.

One part of the investment made by Nazca Capital has been instrumented as a capital increase to allow Grupo IMO to maintain its successful growth and continue with the strong investments deployed in the last years in order to bring to Spain the latest technologies for cancer radiotherapy services.

Grupo IMO expects to reach sales above €25M in 2011 with operating results (EBITDA) of €6.5M, following strong 20% annual growth rates in the last four years.

Finae Partners has acted as financial advisor to the sellers. Legal advisers have been Herbert Smith for the acquirer and Garrigues for the sellers. On the other hand, the financial and commercial due diligence has been done by PWC and the legal and fiscal due diligence was made by Herbert Smith.