Ardian outlines Vista Vision consolidation plans; CVC joins KKR in Superstruct Entertainment; Private equity signs energy transition deals | PE Hub

I had a lovely trip to the cinema yesterday to see the excellent The Wild Robot with my son. It was also slightly novel as it was a 3D showing – just a few years ago, it seemed like every film was in the format, but it’s a bit of a rarity nowadays. So it was my first time wearing 3D glasses in a long, long time.

Coincidentally, vision and entertainment are two of the themes in today’s Wire.

First, we take a deep dive into Ardian’s plans for ophthalmology chain Vista Vision, before we look at CVC Capital Partners joining KKR in an entertainment investment.

Switching to energy, we have Advent International, Arendals Fossekompani and Generation Investment Management  completing their take-private for Volue and Soho Square investing in LMF Energy Services.

Finishing up, Cinven-backed Synlab has sold some of its operations.

Eyeing growth

Ardian plans to consolidate the fragmented Italian ophthalmology market by targeting small independent clinics led by single practitioners for its Vista Vision platform, Marco Molteni, managing director, and Giacomo Brettoni, director at Ardian Expansion team, told PE Hub’s Irien Joseph.

The goal is to develop the network in Italy through M&A, acquiring clinics in certain locations or opening greenfield projects in locations that are underserved or not sizable, Molteni said.

Paris-headquartered private equity firm Ardian purchased a majority stake in Vista, a chain of ophthalmology clinics that focuses on refractive surgery and eye surgery, in early October. The practice corrects myopia, cataract and similar eye diseases, Molteni said. Like Molteni and Brettoni, Vista is based in Milan.

Vista is the only sizable platform in Italy to consolidate the market, Brettoni said. “There are many surgical centers managed by independent physicians. Vista has performed several acquisitions in the past three years and they have been able to scale rapidly in the centers they have acquired, thanks to integration and digitalization.”

The focus is on the domestic market because many independent clinics struggle to attract other practitioners, Molteni said, as “many doctors don’t want to work with their competitors in the same structure.” But in the past, when these clinics join Vista’s network, they become more independent and attract other doctors operating in the same area, he added.

Ardian plans to continue this buy-and-build strategy, focusing on small independent clinics in attractive locations in terms of population and quality equipment, Molteni said. The plan is to integrate these clinics into the network to improve and attract new doctors to boost revenue and profitability.

Additionally, the firm is also considering “sizable” targets in areas where Vista already operates to better penetrate the local market, he said. International expansion is also part of the plans, with selected targets in France, Switzerland and Spain.

Check out the full interview to find out why Ardian believes there is strong growth ahead for the ophthalmology sector and why the Italian market was particularly attractive.

That’s entertainment

CVC Capital Partners has invested alongside KKR in Superstruct Entertainment, a premier live entertainment group.

Superstruct owns and operates over 80 music festivals across 10 countries in Europe and Australia, including Wacken Open Air, Defqon1, Parookaville, Tinderbox, Zwarte Cross and Sónar.

The investment positions Superstruct to accelerate its mission of creating best-in-class live experiences, working closely with entrepreneurs, creative visionaries and business-minded professionals, according to a release.

KKR announced its acquisition of Superstruct in June, which has now closed.

Taken private

Advent International, Arendals Fossekompani and Generation Investment Management have completed a voluntary tender offer for Volue.

Oslo-based Volue is a software and data services provider. It has over 800 employees with more than 2,500 customers across energy, power grid, water and infrastructure projects.

The consortium made a NKr42 per share offer for Volue in July, a premium of 51 percent to the previous trading day’s closing price. That valued the total equity at about NKr6 billion ($544 million; €503 million).

Renewable energy

Sticking with the energy transition, Soho Square has invested in Live Manage Facilitate, which trades as LMF Energy Services.

The Merseyside, England-based company installs renewable energy measures in properties across the UK. The measures include heat pumps, solar panels, electric storage heaters and insulation.

Established in 2016, LMF has completed over 20,000 energy efficiency installations to date, according to a statement.

Installations are primarily in low-income households, with funding provided by energy suppliers mandated by Ofgem under the government’s ECO4 scheme to make households more energy efficient, the statement read. LMF also installs solar panels for private and commercial properties.

Carving out

Cinven-backed Synlab has agreed to sell its clinical diagnostics operations in Spain to bioanalytical testing company Eurofins Scientific.

The unit provides clinical diagnostics testing, including genetics and anatomical pathology services, across Spain. It had revenue of around €140 million in 2023, according to a release.

Cinven settled its take-private offer for Synlab, a provider of medical diagnostic services and specialty testing, in April. Cinven launched the offer about a year ago for €10 per share, valuing the total equity at around €2.2 billion. Synlab had only gone public in April 2021 at €18 per share – having previously been bought by Cinven in 2015.

As we wrote at the time of the take-private offer, the company took a hit from reduced demand for covid testing and a price drop for covid PCR tests, as well as the inflationary cost environment, said a statement. That hit revenues and EBITDA margin, leading to a drop in the market cap “which has been exacerbated by low trading liquidity in the stock”.

Cinven also agreed to sell an indirect 15 percent stake in Synlab to laboratory services provider Labcorp for around €140 million last month.