New Zealand’s Waterman buys 20% of Manuka Health

Investing via the $30 million fund it manages on behalf of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Waterman has injected several million dollars in the business and Executive Director Chris Marshall will take a seat on the board.

The new funding will allow the company - which commercializes science-based biotechnologies for human healthcare applications - to continue to invest in research and development. Manuka Healthcare has grown by more than 50% per year over the last six years, and its turnover was around $20 million this year.

Over the next two years, the firm will invest approximately $8 million in a new processing plant in Te Awamutu, North Island, and centralize its warehouse and distribution centers, to become one of the largest employers in the region.

"Manuka Health is strategically well-placed to exploit the many benefits inherent in this uniquely New Zealand product through its brand equity, production and manufacturing facilities and global distribution network," Waterman's Marshall told Voxy.co.nz.

Manuka Health represents Waterman's second investment in a health-related business, after its acquisition of 22% of the company which owns Auckland's Mercy and Ascot Hospitals last September. Prior to that, in May, it picked up a 50% stake in Working In, an immigration and employment-information provider.

The Auckland-based PE firm was established in 2004 by Matt Riley and Chris Marshall, who spun out of Direct Capital. It successfully closed its second fund, Waterman Fund 2 LP, on $83 million in 2010.

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Healthcare
• Australasia
• New Zealand
• Pharmaceuticals
• Growth capital