Ropes & Gray Advises Avista Capital Partners on its €305m Joint Acquisition of Vision Healthcare

Ropes & Gray has advised Avista Capital Partners – a leading New York-based private equity firm – on its joint acquisition with VHC Investco of Vision Healthcare, one of Europe’s fastest-growing omni-channel and direct-to-consumer healthcare companies. The deal, which announced on 29 May, values Vision at an aggregate value of €305 million, inclusive of contingent payments.  

Vision Consumer Health is a Belgium-based consumer healthcare platform with sales and operations across continental Europe. The company has the ambition to become a leading global omni-channel consumer healthcare platform, with a unique digitized D2C approach. Founded in 2017, Vision has grown rapidly into a company today with over c. €135m of sales, through a combination of a successful buy-and-build strategy and strong organic growth in its direct-to-consumer businesses. 

The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity transactions partner Helen Croke, based in London. Other members of the team included finance partner Alex Robb, antitrust partner Ruchit Patel and tax partner Brenda Coleman and tax counsel Chris Agnoli, alongside private equity associates Laura Kayani and Eamon Gallagher, and antitrust associate Vincenzo Volpe. All are based in the firm’s London office.

Ropes & Gray worked alongside Noerr LLP and Stibbe on the deal.  Noerr LLP advised Avista Capital Partners on the German law aspects of the transaction and Stibbe advised Avista Capital Partners on the Dutch and Belgian law aspects of the deal.