Private equity firm TPG Capital is eyeing about 10-times its money at clinical trials business Novotech.
It is understood the firm’s recent minority stake sale locked in a valuation at about 7½ times TPG’s initial investment, and recent momentum and equity market movements had it eyeing up to a stonking 10-times return should Novotech list in Hong Kong as planned.
That’s the sort of number that would make it TPG Capital’s best or second best investment in Asia, ever, limited partner sources told Street Talk. The other one occurred more than a decade ago, when it operated via its Newbridge Capital joint venture.
Goldman Sachs and UBS are lined up to float Novotech, as Street Talk revealed on Wednesday night. TPG’s expected to seek a $4 billion-plus valuation. Its recent Novotech selldown valued the company at $US2.3 billion ($2.95 billion).
Source: Financial Review
By Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
