Private equity firms GHO and Ampersand acquire Avid Bioservices for $1.1 billion
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Avid Bioservices will be acquired by funds managed by GHO and Ampersand in a transaction valued at $1.1 billion. The acquisition price represents nearly a 22% premium to the company’s average share price for the past 20 days, and over six times the revenues expected in 2025.
Based in Tustin, California, Avid Bioservices is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) dedicated to the development and manufacturing of biologics following current good manufacturing practice (cGMP). Avid was founded in 2002 as a spinout of biopharmaceutical company Peregrine Pharmaceuticals.
“Since our founding, Avid Bioservices’ business has grown by evolving to meet our customers' broad range of development and manufacturing needs. After years of investment and expansion, now is the right time to move forward as a private company with new owners that will support our next phase,” stated Nick Green, president and CEO of Avid Bioservices. “Partnering with GHO Capital and Ampersand Capital Partners allows us to build on our strong foundation by accessing their significant knowledge base, network and capital to position the business for the future with our customers.”
Global Healthcare Opportunities (GHO) Capital Partners is a specialist healthcare investment advisor based in London, UK. The firm’s life sciences investment portfolio spans multiple businesses that offer outsourced services to the biopharmaceutical industry, including CDMOs such as Alacami and Roslin CT.
“As experienced CDMO industry investors, GHO brings deep expertise and experience to support Avid's management team going forward,” said Alan MacKay and Mike Mortimer, Managing Partners of GHO. “Our mission at GHO is to make healthcare better, faster, and more accessible and at the heart of this is enabling efficient, high-quality manufacturing of innovative treatments. Avid exemplifies this perfectly — the company operates in high-growth markets, producing complex biologics for leading pharmaceutical and biotech innovators at both the clinical and commercial stages. Avid’s recent investments, both in capacity and its exemplary team, position it strongly for future growth.”
GHO’s deal partner Ampersand Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity firm based in Boston, US, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For Ampersand, the Avid deal closely follows the acquisition of Nektar Therapeutics’ commercial-scale manufacturing facility and reagent supply business for a total of $90 million earlier in October.
“Avid has long been a trusted provider of biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing services, and we have tremendous respect for its team’s expertise, its broad spectrum of customized services and its strong regulatory track record. We look forward to leveraging our deep industry experience, focused strategy, and collaborative approach to drive growth,” said David Anderson, General Partner of Ampersand.
