IBA and SK Capital Partners Create IBA Molecular Imaging

Ion Beam Applications and SK Capital Partners, a US-based private investment firm, have entered into an agreement to create IBA Molecular Imaging, a jointly-owned new company derived from IBA’s molecular imaging division. SK Capital Partners will own 60% of the new company while IBA will have a 40% stake. The parties have also agreed to equally share the development cost of the current pipeline of new molecules and, in recognition of IBA past investment, their resulting profits will benefit for 60 % to IBA and 40 % to SK Capital. The enterprise value used as the basis for the transaction is approximately EUR 180 million on a debt- and excess cash-free basis.

Linklaters advised IBA with a core team consisting of Arnaud Coibion (lead – corporate partner, Brussels), Henk Vanhulle (tax partner, Brussels), Nicolas Gauzès (managing sssociate, Luxembourg) and Géraldine Hanotiau (associate, Brussels). The Brussels, Luxembourg, Paris and New York offices of Linklaters were involved.

Morgan Lewis represented long-time client, SK Capital Partners, in this transaction. The Morgan Lewis team was led by Steven Cohen (M&A) with assistance from Roland Montfort (Paris), Richard Zarin (Tax), Donald Silverman (Nuclear Regulatory) and Howard Young (Health Care Regulatory).

ENVIRON acted as technical environmental adviser to its client SK Capital Partners in this transaction. The ENVIRON team was led by Fred Loneker, an ENVIRON Principal and senior M&A due diligence practitioner based in the US. Technical expertise in the area of radiological hazards and regulatory compliance was provided by a multi-national team led by Jason Miller (Principal; Arlington, VA USA), Thomas Perrier (Senior Consultant; Aix-en-Provence, France) and Erik Sinno (Senior Consultant; Paris, France), with project support provided by staff throughout Europe (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain).