Deals
Private Equity Bet on German Drugmaker Goes South Quickly
- Investment firm EQT is largest lender at center of probe
- Credit unit under scrutiny after ‘strategic review’ launched
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A hefty bet on a German cancer drug maker is proving a major headache for Swedish investment firm EQT, one of a slew of companies seeking to capitalize on Europe’s fast-growing direct lending sector.
Less than six months after EQT AB’s private credit division arranged a 331 million euro ($357 million) loan for Alanta Health Group GmbH in the summer of 2019, police officers searched dozens of the company’s premises. An investigation is now underway into how its subsidiary ZytoService Deutschland wins business from the doctors prescribing its drugs. The pharmaceutical company accounts for almost three-quarters of Alanta’s revenues according to 2018 figures.