Williams Medical Supplies Plc

Deal Summary

Catalyst advised ISIS Equity Partners on their investment alongside management in the £40m management buy-out of Williams Medical Supplies.

The business, based in South Wales, is the UK’s leading supplier of injectable pharmaceuticals, consumables and family planning products to the Primary Care Market. Trading under the WMS brand, the business supplies a wide product range spanning contraceptive injections to paper towels and medical gloves.

WMS services over 70% of the 10,000 GP surgeries in the UK, and over 4,000 other customers including pharmacies, the NHS, occupational health providers, nursing homes, family planning clinics and custodial institutions.

What difference did we make?

The vendors' advisors were running a standard auction process. ISIS wanted to bring on board advisors who would give them an edge and demonstrate their real appetite for the opportunity.

ISIS felt our sector knowledge, track record of getting deals to the finishing line, existing relationship with the vendor’s advisors and ability to work effectively with management teams in similar circumstances would achieve this.

By deploying the right resource very quickly and preparing a comprehensive bid document we assisted ISIS in gaining exclusivity to complete the transaction. However, the exclusivity period granted was limited and again our experienced approach assured a focus on the key issues, thus allowing ISIS to meet the timing commitments.

Specifically we managed the debt raising process, exploring a variety of options including an integrated mezzanine, senior debt and asset finance facility. This solution was chosen to provide flexible facilities to match the dynamics of Williams’s high growth distribution business model. Attention to detail was critical in developing a comprehensive working capital model to ensure the actual blended facility delivered the required flexibility and headroom. This led on to our detailed negotiation of the working capital facility.