Houlihan Lokey Advises Duke Street

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Duke Street LLP (Duke Street), a leading European middle-market private equity group, has acquired ForLife Group (ForLife), which includes ForLife and its fully integrated downstream partner, Oakmed. ForLife was carved out from GHD GesundHeits GmbH (GHD), a Nordic Capital portfolio company. Headquartered in Germany, ForLife is a manufacturer of ostomy care products with a differentiated product offering and operating in Germany and the UK. To complement the purchase, Duke Street has simultaneously acquired the assets of Trio Healthcare Ltd. (Trio), specialists in stoma care based in Yorkshire, England. Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financing advisor to Duke Street on the transaction, which successfully closed on 30 November 2024.

Founded in Berlin in 1990, ForLife designs, develops, and manufactures high-quality medical devices and aids with a core focus on stoma care. They work closely with patients and healthcare professionals to improve people's health and quality of life with ostomy as well as continence, nutrition, and wound care needs.

Trio is a specialist in stoma care based in Yorkshire, England. This includes the Genii™ stoma bags, containing the unique Sil2 Breathable Silicone Technology®, which will now be available to a much broader population of patients.

Duke Street is a leading UK private equity firm that has been investing in western European businesses for more than 20 years and concentrating on four sectors: consumer, healthcare, industrials and engineering, and services. Duke Street traditionally invests in companies with an enterprise value ranging from £50 million to £350 million, having already invested in excess of €600 million in the healthcare sector since 1997. Duke Street has invested over €2.5 billion in more than 50 companies over the past 25 years and has achieved strong returns in excess of 20% IRR since inception.

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