Unilabs Group

Apax Partners, sale to AP Moller Holdings (Maersk family)

Group CFO

Unilabs is one of the largest healthcare diagnostic service providers in Europe, and the only to offer laboratory, radiology and pathology specialities within one group.  It is present in >15 countries, including Peru and the Middle East, and had sales of c.€2bn in 2021.

Unilabs played a critical role in the healthcare ecosystem during the CV19 pandemic, providing extensive sample collection and testing capacity.

Victoria was tasked with assessing the exit readiness of the Group, and then preparing for and delivering a successful exit for Apax  whilst in parallel assessing and and improving the functions in her responsibility (Legal & Compliance, M&A, Finance, Tax, Treasury, Internal Audit, Investor Relations), improving visibility and insight relating to performance, improving controls and increasing partnering across the business particularly through the ongoing industrialisation and digitisation drive. 

Key achievements

• Established Commercial and Operational partnering, driving improved insight and financial evaluation including for tenders (sales and procurement), retail expansion, new business and capex
• Relaunched M&A following an initial CV19 pause, with >15 signed transactions across multiple countries, and with total EV >€425m
• Refreshed direct reports and step changed performance of Group teams
• Preparation for and execution of sale through auction including: IM and Management Presentation with multiple buyer meetings; Financial, Legal, Regulatory and Tax VDD and Q&A.
• Led the Acquisition Financing in partnership with new shareholders - €2.25bn all bank deal – having managed the Investor Relations workstream for the pre-existing bond financing
• Established Group Legal & Compliance, Group Tax and Group Treasury as strong expert functions protecting and adding value across the Group
• Established a multi-year Finance Transformation including standardisation across the Group, new Consolidation and MIS tools, and a multi-year ERP roll-out, with a view to improved insight, partnering and functional efficiencies