European private equity firm Cinven today announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire Phadia AB (“Phadia”), the global leader in in vitro testing, from PPM Capital and Triton for an enterprise value of €1.285 billion.

Headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, Phadia has achieved a global market leading position in in vitro allergy testing systems and a European market leadership in autoimmunity testing. The company develops, manufactures, and markets complete blood testing systems to support the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of allergy and auto-immune diseases. With a large installed base of about 5,000 testing systems in more than 3,000 laboratories in 60 countries around the world, the company is a global market leader in in vitro allergy testing.

With over 1,164 employees, Phadia has achieved its market position through significant investment in R&D and through the development of a strong global direct and indirect sales and marketing channel.

The acquisition of Phadia is subject to regulatory clearance and is expected to complete in January 2007. Cinven was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, KPMG and Candesic and debt was provided by The Royal Bank of Scotland, Bayerische Hypo- and Vereinsbank AG and UBS.

Commenting on the acquisition, Stuart McAlpine, partner of Cinven said:

“Phadia is a medtech business that has carved itself a leadership position in the area of in vitro diagnostic testing through a combination of technological leadership and a strong and well established direct and indirect channel to market. This has been the foundation of its success and financial performance to date.

As allergies and auto-immune diseases become evermore prevalent, Phadia is in a strong position to provide clinicians with fast and accurate in vitro diagnostic systems. Cinven will be investing heavily in accelerating top-line and profit growth through the significant expansion of Phadia’s global sales and marketing capability across its global footprint and the broadening of its diagnostic offering.

We look forward to supporting Magnus and his team on this next exciting phase of growth”

Magnus Lundberg, CEO of Phadia, added:

“We are delighted to be working with Cinven to take the business into its next phase of development. Cinven enjoys a strong reputation of working in partnership with businesses and showed a deep understanding of our markets and our strategic goals. We look forward to working with them as we accelerate growth across our international footprint.”