Portfolio
Panreac
| Sector | Industrials |
|---|---|
| Investment type | Buyouts |
| Region | Spain |
| Status | Former investment |
Nature of Business
Panreac manufactures reagents for laboratory analysis and chemical products for industrial use by the pharmaceutical, food, chemical and research and development sectors, hospitals and universities. The company has over 12,000 product lines.
Established over 60 years ago in Spain, Panreac is now an established international business and has grown to have subsidiaries in France, Portugal, Italy and Spain. It has customers and distributors in over 80 countries across five continents. Panreac is headquartered in Montcada i Reixac, near Barcelona.
Investment Overview
3i backed the management team in a €48.5m buyout in October 2005, bringing our in-depth sector expertise gained from investments in companies such as Azelis and KemFine to drive Panreac’s international growth.
We actively supported Panreac through our initial backing of the management team and subsequently introduced Ramon Lafuente as Chairman through our Business Leaders Network. We also advised on the 2007 acquisition of Nova Chimica, a leading Italian competitor which consolidated Panreac’s market-leadership in Italy.
Through our Active Partnership approach we advised on various continuous improvement initiatives, including warehouse and inventory rationalisation, pricing and sales force effectiveness. As a result, in 2008 Panreac moved to new 3,000m² warehouse facilities - a move that has resulted in improved inventory management and levels of customer service. The company has also been able to grow in sales as a consequence of the better commercial focus implemented.
We sold the business in September 2010 to Illinois Tool Works Inc, for a 2.2x return on our investment.
