Blackstone buys Nucleus Network

Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman. Picture: Mark Lennihan

New York-based private equity fund Blackstone has purchased Nucleus Network from Crescent Capital.

It comes after a Morgan Stanley-run sale process entered its final phase last week with two or three parties shortlisted.

The business is Australia’s largest phase one clinical trials provider with world-class facilities in Melbourne, Brisbane and Minneapolis.

It is understood to generate about $40m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and the sale price is thought to be about $700m.

Blackstone, advised by Royal Bank of Canada on the transaction, is targeting life sciences businesses for investments, with more than $US7bn of assets under management in a unit dedicated to the space.

In July last year, it raised the largest fund for life sciences to date.

This year, Blackstone completed the corporate carve out of Alinamin Pharmaceutical in Japan in the largest private equity deal in the country since 2017.

Last year, it invested in Precision Medicine Group, a next-generation life sciences services and technology company that helps biopharmaceutical companies design and conduct complex biomarker-based clinical trials and bring innovative therapies to market.

Over the last 15 years, Nucleus has assisted in the delivery of more than 800 phase one clinical trials, supporting the commercialisation of innovative new medicines and therapies.

It partners with biotech companies and research hospitals around the world.

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager with $US731 billion in assets under management including investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds globally.