Linklaters advises Apax on the sale of Unilabs

Linklaters has advised the seller, including funds advised by Apax Partners LLP (the Apax Funds), on the sale of Unilabs, a leading pan-European provider of laboratory and imaging diagnostics services, to A.P. Moller Holding, the parent company of the Danish A.P. Moller Group founded and run by the Maersk family.

The Apax Funds first invested in a minority stake in Unilabs in 2007 before acquiring majority control in 2017. Unilabs has since grown to become a European leader in digital imaging and digital pathology diagnostics.

Today, Unilabs is the only European player covering the full spectrum of diagnostics across laboratory, imaging and pathology services at scale, with 12,000 people employed across 15 countries.

The transaction is expected to close in the next few months, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The large cross-practice Linklaters team advising on the deal was led by Ben Rodham (Partner) who was assisted by Ben Suen (Managing Associate) and Tash Barrington (Associate), as well as Frankfurt-based Andreas Muller (Partner), Julia Rupp (Managing Associate), Dorothee Barg (Managing Associate) and Nikita Selivanov (Managing Associate).

This is the latest high-profile private equity healthcare exit led by Linklaters following PAI’s sale of Atos Medical, Partners Group’s sale of Cerba HealthCare and Apax’s sale of Neuraxpharm.