Case Study

HyTest

Distribution

The company

  • Region: Europe
  • Sector: Healthcare
  • Stage: Small/mid buyout
  • Type: Co-investment
  • Fund Vintage: 2018
  • Exit Type: Trade sale
  • Highlights:
£5.9m
Proceeds

Private Equity Manager (GP)

Case study

About the company

HyTest is a Finnish company that develops and manufactures monoclonal antibodies and antigens for the diagnostic industry and research communities. Monoclonal antibodies bring T cells close to cancer cells, helping the immune cells kill the cancer cells. 90% of revenue comes from in vitro diagnosis (“IVD”) reagent (testing kit) customers, and 10% comes from research organisations (e.g. academic institutions). HyTest’s largest markets are Asia (primarily China), the USA and Europe.

Investment Rationale

  • Non-cyclical growth sector and attractive business model with “mission-critical” products, sticky customer relationships and high cash flow conversion.
  • The company has a strong competitive positioning and has grown faster than the market.
  • Scientific background of the founder and senior management team members lay the foundation of HyTest’s technical capability and superior product offering.
  • In the midst of the global pandemic, testing for critical conditions has become increasingly important and HyTest has helped meet the increased global demand for high-quality antibodies and antigens, which are key components in various laboratory tests and diagnostic kits.

Our relationship

Pantheon has a long-standing relationship with Summa Equity (“Summa”), having been a founding investor in its first fund, and has supported all their funds since then. Pantheon is also an advisory board member and has completed two co-investments alongside Summa.

Active management and value creation

  • Summa has added value by professionalising the business, increasing salesforce depth, new customer introductions in the high growth diagnostic categories which are additive to HyTest’s existing portfolio.
  • The Summa partner leading this investment had significant experience in the IVD sector, having completed two deals in this space.
  • Over the holding period, Summa was able to accelerate research and development and launch new products.

Exit

HyTest was acquired by Chinese medical device company Mindray Medical International in November 2021, providing a full exit for Summa and for PIP.

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