Refinancing of Advanced Clinical Sciences Corporation Ltd and acquisition of CRC GmbH (Switzerland) and CRC SRL (Italy)

HMT advised its client Advanced Clinical Research Corporation Limited (“ACSC”) in the refinancing of its growing operations and the acquisition of the pan European CRC Group.

ACSC was founded in 2002 by Dr Guy Patrick, Dr Simon Yaxley and Mr Tim Carden, all of whom have extensive experience of the pharmaceutical industry. The objective of the business was to build a contract Clinical Research Organisation (“CRO”) with a global footprint in the medical clinical research market through buy and build strategy.

CRO’s organise and monitor clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, which increasingly outsource this part of their drug development cycle. By better use of the current technologies, ACSC aim to reduce this cycle significantly with huge cost savings to the pharmaceutical companies.

The first acquisition, made in May 2002, was Therapeutic Management Limited, based in Crowthorne, UK, and San Diego, USA. This acquisition gave the business a transatlantic footprint, and was bedded in during 2002. Following this, ACSC was made aware of the opportunity to acquire CRC.

CRC is the second acquisition ACSC’s management has completed in as many years. CRC is a Switzerland based CRO, originally established in 1998 by Dr Weiss and Mrs Weiss, who are well known and highly respected professionals in the field with many years experience. In its relatively short existence CRC enjoyed explosive growth and set up a permanent presence in a number of European countries. The Weisses’ were looking for buyers capable of taking this rapidly expanding business onto the next level, whilst they continue to be involved focusing on their specialist fields, ACSC was the perfect partner.

HMT acted as lead advisers to ACSC’s management in both acquisitions, including sourcing funding, financial due diligence of the target businesses and negotiation of terms with the vendors. The negotiated second round funding was provided by a private individual interested in supporting businesses in early stage development but demonstrating high growth potential.

HMT  commented:

“We were delighted to act for ACSC in this second acquisition providing great potential for development. ACSC, with offices in the UK and US, and CRC with its pan European presence, are a natural fit with complementary customer base and geographical presence, enabling them to compete efficiently for larger contracts, which would not be possible for the businesses on a standalone basis.”