Houlihan Lokey Advises Ufenau Capital Partners

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Ufenau Capital Partners (Ufenau) have completed their refinancing of Altano Group (Altano), the leading operator of equine veterinary clinics across Europe, to enable the roll-over of the asset into their newly established Continuation Fund. The transaction closed on 14 April 2022.

Altano Group, headquartered in Germany, is the leading consolidator and operator of equine veterinary clinic services with over 350 vets based in 40 locations across Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark. The company provides a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic services to more than 100,000 customers per year, including routine services, internal medicine, and orthopaedics.

Ufenau is a privately owned investment company headquartered in Switzerland that advises private investors, family offices, and institutional investors on private equity with a focus on majority buyouts of owner-managed companies within asset-light industries. Since 2011, Ufenau has completed over 200 transactions across Europe, underpinning the strong track record of buy-and-build strategies and consolidation of fragmented markets.

Together with Ufenau and its management, Altano will continue to pursue its growth and buy-and-build strategy by expanding its clinic network to adjacent growth regions such as Italy, Spain, South Africa, and the United Kingdom while supporting strong organic growth within its core countries. With a large number of targets already identified, the group will accelerate the consolidation of equine veterinary clinics.

Houlihan Lokey acted as exclusive financial advisor to Ufenau on the refinancing of Altano Group and provided debt advice on all commercial aspects of the complex financing transaction, supporting Ufenau on a tailor-made debt financing package for Altano Group. The new financing structure will support Altano’s growth strategy and secures sufficient flexibility for further buy-and-build at highly attractive terms. In addition, it enabled the transfer of the company into the newly established Ufenau Continuation Fund.

This deal marks the third consecutive engagement with Ufenau in the past 12 months. Houlihan Lokey was the exclusive debt advisor to Ufenau on both of its Continuation Fund transactions.