DENTALPRO takes majority stake in CLINIODENT

DentalPro acquired a majority stake in Cliniodent, the Swiss dental clinic group, in a deal announced on 29 November 2018 that was the Italian chain's first investment outside its home market. Founder Klaus-Uwe Busch kept a minority holding and continued to run the clinical and organisational side of the business, which at the time operated three clinics, in Lucerne, Thun and Zug, and was about to open two more. Cliniodent generated an EBITDA of that year. The purchase opened a Swiss platform for DentalPro, which planned to reach twenty clinics in the country within three years, while Cliniodent was to keep its own brand in the short term and draw on DentalPro's operating experience. In Italy, DentalPro had opened 21 clinics during 2018 and planned 25 more in 2019, bringing its network to more than 150 dental centres in shopping centres and major cities. DentalPro had been controlled by BC Partners since May 2017, when the fund took over from Vam Investments and Summit Partners, with Club degli Investitori joining as a minority shareholder in July 2017. Founded in 2010 by chief executive Michel Cohen with implantologists Samuele Baruch and Paolo Tonveronachi, the group had since refinanced its debt, repaying early the bond issued to fund its 2016 acquisition of Giovanni Bona Dental Clinics. White & Case advised on the legal aspects of the transaction and Ernst & Young on the financial side.