German generics maker Stada has settled on a buyout by CapVest Partners, putting an end to its previously reported IPO ambitions.
The CapVest deal changes Stada’s ownership from private equity firms Bain Capital and Cinven, which picked up the company in 2017 and will now retain a minority stake, CapVest and Stada said in a press release.
London-based CapVest is set to take on a stake of about 70%, valuing Stada’s business at around 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) in what could be one of the year’s biggest takeover deals in Europe, Reuters reported Monday, citing two people familiar with the transaction.
“With their deep knowledge in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals markets, CapVest is an ideal next partner to work with us to capitalise on the many opportunities emerging in our sector and realise our ambitious plans for the company,” Stada’s CEO Peter Goldschmidt commented in the release, adding that Cinven and Bain Capital have been “excellent partners” on the company’s journey thus far.
CapVest, meanwhile, has “admired Stada for several years,” the private equity firm’s Matthew Fargie noted. “Stada is a unique strategic platform through which we will leverage our significant healthcare and consumer expertise to accelerate the development of the company in Germany and internationally.”
The firm pledges to deploy “significant new capital” toward this objective, according to Fargie. The terms of the deal are set to close next year.
CapVest initially zoned in on Stada in July, Bloomberg reported at the time. According to Bloomberg, the talks broke down last month due to differences in valuation and the structure of the proposal, leaving Stada to pick up previous plans of an IPO.
As recently as last week, the company was preparing for a fall IPO, “provided the general conditions are right,” Goldschmidt told German news agency dpa, as quoted by Reuters.
According to Reuters’ sources, those intensified IPO preparations swayed CapVest to pursue a larger stake than its initial proposal of 50% plus one share.
Stada had previously been ready to file its intention for a German IPO in March, but put the plans on hold after being advised against the move due to market volatility tied to geopolitical events, people familiar with the matter told Reuters at the time.
Bain Capital and Civen have reportedly been weighing options to exit the business since 2023. Since buying Stada for 5.32 billion euros ($5.63 billion), the two have supported its growth from a “traditional German generics business” into a diversified global healthcare platform, according to the release.
The company recently posted what Goldschmidt referred to as “broad-based growth” over the first half of 2025 to 2.1 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in revenue, driven in part by the July 2024 launch of Alvotech-partnered Uzpruvo, a biosimilar to Johnson & Johnson’s immunology powerhouse Stelara.