European specialist healthcare investor Global Healthcare Opportunities (GHO) has announced the successful close of its second funding round at a hard cap of €975m, the largest specialist private equity fund dedicated to European healthcare.
GHO Capital Fund II LP (Fund II) is significantly oversubscribed, bypassing its target of €800m.
Since its founding in 2014, GHO has grown its total assets under management to €2bn, making it the largest dedicated healthcare investment firm in Europe. Fund II’s previous funding round closed at €660m in 2016, and was used to back eight companies, two of which it has already exited.
Fund II aims to develop untapped opportunities in the medtech industry through buyout investments, as well as other specialist high-growth healthcare subsectors such as pharma and outsourced services. It made two investments in the first quarter of 2019, in small molecule API developer Sterling Pharma Solutions and bioanalytical testing company BioAgilytix.
The company aims to draw on its extensive international network to accelerate transatlantic growth opportunities going forward.
GHO Capital’s partners said: “The significant size of the Fund reflects the increasing maturity of the European healthcare sector and the level of investor interest and support for developing healthcare businesses that address global issues and trends.”
Within the last six months it has exited investments in Canada-based firm Caprion Biosciences and Quotient Sciences, a pharmaceutical firm headquartered in Nottingham, England.
Outsourced services are currently the largest part of GHO’s portfolio, accounting for four of the ten companies it has backed thus far, with the rest of the portfolio made up of companies active in diagnostics and patient services.
“Fund II is an important achievement for GHO Capital, presenting an exciting opportunity to help build the next generation of high-growth, innovative businesses, bringing better healthcare to more people,” GHO Capital’s partners added.
“With our proven track-record and repeatable investment model, underpinned by a team with an unrivalled fusion of private equity, operational and healthcare competencies, we are recognized by stakeholders across the sector as the leading European investor in healthcare.”
