KKR buys majority stake in New Zealand animal health business

The private equity firm is investing via its Health Care Strategic Growth Fund, which raised $1.4 billion in 2017 to provide scaling support to high-growth companies. The fund was set up to make equity investments of up to $100 million, taking both minority and control stakes, with a focus on the Americas.

Argenta provides research and manufacturing services for animal pharmaceutical companies and claims its clients include eight of the top 10 players in this space. The company describes its business as a molecule-to-market platform, bringing together capabilities in areas such as opportunity assessment and proof-of-concept, clinical and regulatory services, technology transfer and product commercialization. Operations cover New Zealand, the US, and the UK.

KKR plans to help Argenta bring in new capabilities and expand its footprint in the US and Europe. It is acquiring its position from Tomlinson Group, an entity associated with Greg Tomlinson, founder of a New Zealand private equity firm called Impact Capital. Tomlinson Group will retain a minority position.

“We believe there is a significant opportunity ahead to build Argenta into the leading global end-to-end pharma services platform dedicated to animal health. We look forward to leveraging KKR’s global network and experience across pharma services and animal health to support Argenta’s plans for future growth,” Kugan Sathiyanandarajah, head of Europe for KKR’s healthcare program, and Johnny Kim, a principal at the firm, said in a statement.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Buyouts
• Healthcare
• New Zealand
• KKR
• Pharmaceuticals