LONDON, UK: Caledonia Investments plc (LON:CLDN) announced that the shareholders of portfolio company BioAgilytix, a leading provider of bioanalytical testing for large molecule research and development, have agreed terms of a majority investment in the company by international private equity firm Cinven.

Cinven’s investment involves a sale of Caledonia’s interest in BioAgilytix to Cinven. Caledonia’s gross proceeds are expected to be c.US$183m, net of fees, and will be confirmed upon completion. Proceeds will be held for future investment. Caledonia’s shareholding in BioAgilytix was valued by Caledonia at £51m as at 30 September 2021.

The transaction is subject to US anti-trust approvals and is expected to complete in December 2021.

Caledonia co-invested in BioAgilytix in February 2019 alongside Belgium based investment company Cobepa and UK based specialist healthcare fund GHO Capital.

The business has grown strongly since, via a mix of impressive organic growth and acquisitions in the US and Australia, expanding its geographic reach and capabilities.

Throughout this time, BioAgilytix has been led by CEO, Jim Datin, who will continue in role under the new ownership. With Cinven’s global footprint, specialist healthcare expertise and significant resources, we believe BioAgilytix will continue to flourish with Cinven as the new lead investor.

Tom Leader, Head of Caledonia Private Capital, said: “Caledonia’s Private Capital strategy is to invest in high quality businesses with best-in-class management teams and BioAgilytix and Jim Datin exemplify the success of this approach. We are delighted with what the company has been able to achieve since we first invested, and would like to thank them as well as Peter Connolly and the Cobepa team, the lead investors. With Cinven’s global footprint, significant resources and specialist healthcare expertise we believe BioAgilytix will continue to flourish.”

Jim Datin, President and Chief Executive Officer of BioAgilytix, commented: “Cinven’s investment in BioAgilytix will accelerate our evolution as a contract research organisation as we look to build out new state-of-the-art laboratories, invest in our world-class team and expand both our service capabilities and geographic reach. These objectives match up perfectly with the ever-growing needs of our customers who rely on us to bring novel therapeutics to their patient populations.”

Caledonia is a self-managed investment trust company listed on the London Stock Exchange with net assets of £2.2bn as at 31 March 2021. The company maintains a concentrated portfolio of international quoted, private, and fund investments and has paid an increasing annual dividend for 54 years. www.caledonia.com

BioAgilytix is a best-in-class provider of critical bioanalysis services enabling biologic drug development by pharma and biotech sponsors. The business was founded in 2008 and is head quartered in Durham, North Carolina. The business has laboratory facilities in Hamburg Germany, Boston Massachusetts, San Diego California and Melbourne Australia. www.bioagilytix.com

Cinven is a leading international private equity firm focused on building world-class global companies. Its funds invest in six key sectors: Business Services, Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials and Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT). Cinven has offices in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Madrid, New York, Guernsey and Luxembourg. www.cinven.com