Cinven, a leading European private equity firm, has acquired the Amdipharm Group (Amdipharm), the family-owned international niche pharmaceuticals business, for a total consideration of £367 million.

Amdipharm will operate initially as a standalone business but, over time, Cinven will look to merge Amdipharm with its existing portfolio company, Mercury Pharma, which it acquired in September 2012. The combination demonstrates the execution of Cinven's consolidation strategy within the niche pharmaceuticals sector.

Mercury and Amdipharm each market mature, niche pharmaceuticals, both branded and unbranded. The businesses are highly complementary as Mercury's customer base is largely UK focused, whereas Amdipharm has a significantly greater international business, with its products sold in over 80 countries worldwide.

Amdipharm was founded by Vijay and Bhikhu Patel. The Group, which has grown strongly through acquisition, today generates revenues of over £110 million. The founders will retain a significant minority stake in the combined business going forward.

Commenting on the transaction, Supraj Rajagopalan, partner at Cinven, said: "Our acquisition of Amdipharm is completely transformational. It not only doubles the size of the combined group in terms of revenue and profitability but, importantly, creates a truly global business.  This investment is another example of our ability to source proprietary opportunities through our dedicated sector expertise."

"Vijay and Bhikhu Patel have grown a highly successful business and we share their vision for a global pharmaceutical company through a combination of both the Mercury and Amdipharm businesses. We look forward to working with the management and employees of both companies as we bring the businesses together."

John Beighton, CEO of Mercury Pharma, added: "Mercury and Amdipharm are a perfect combination.  The businesses are highly complementary across core product areas and geographical markets and the combined group already has significant scale operating across global markets with further opportunities for growth."

"The strength of the combined group will also enable us to pursue other potential international acquisitions.  In addition, there are significant opportunities to cross sell products and the niche pharmaceuticals sector remains highly attractive, given both its comparative insulation from patent expiry issues which affect the broader pharmaceutical industry, as well as its underlying demographic trends."

Vijay Patel, chairman of Amdipharm, commented: "Bhikhu and I have enjoyed enormously building the Amdipharm business and growing it into the international player it is today. We firmly believe that now is the perfect time to take the business to the next level, making the business more scalable, through a combination with Mercury.  We have been impressed by the Cinven team's sector expertise and their vision to grow the overall business.  As such we are delighted to partner with them going forward."

Cinven is a leading European private equity firm, founded in 1977, with offices in Guernsey, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. Cinven acquire European-based companies that require an equity investment by our funds of €100 million or more.