Cross border European healthcare IT deal completed

Catalyst has advised Healthcare Knowledge International (HKI) on the sale of its Spanish and Portuguese subsidiaries, Iasist SA and Iasist Portugal (Iasist), to global business media company UBM plc.

Headquartered in Barcelona, Iasist is the leading provider of benchmarking data and software to regional health authorities, hospitals and other health service providers in Spain and Portugal.

The Spanish healthcare market is structured differently to that in the UK. Seventeen autonomous regional authorities are responsible for local healthcare delivery with central government maintaining a regulatory role. Iasist is contracted by all seventeen regions to collect hospital data from over 180 hospitals and primary healthcare providers to form a proprietary database of clinical outcomes on which its products and services are based. Hospitals and health authorities use this information to manage the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. Iasist only entered the Portuguese market in 2007 and is already the leading provider of healthcare intelligence.

Iasist will form part of UBM’s healthcare division, CMP Medica, which is a leading international provider of information and education services to healthcare professionals and patients.

Catalyst initially completed a strategic review of the shareholders’ options to maximise the value of HKI through a sale process and advised that the right course of action was to market the UK and Iberian businesses separately to different strategic buyers.

Catalyst sold HKI’s UK healthcare informatics business to Capita plc in February 2009 and then began the process of identifying and negotiating the sale of Iasist to potential European and US buyers. The sale of Iasist has generated a significant return for HKI’s private equity shareholder, Inflexion, and the HKI management team.

Mark Humphries, Partner at Catalyst commented “Completing deals in the current economic climate requires patience, determination and a thorough attention to detail to ensure that the concerns of cautious buyers are addressed. UBM’s acquisition of Iasist is further evidence that strong international strategic buyers continue to acquire high quality businesses where they enhance their market position and access to customers.”