Silverfleet Capital, a mid-market private equity specialist, has announced that its holding company European Dental Partners (“EDP”) has acquired 100% of shares in InteraDent Zahntechnik AG (“InteraDent”), one of Germany’s largest dental laboratories.

Both sides agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.

InteraDent, headquartered in Lübeck, is one of the pioneers of medical dental care at affordable prices. As early as 1985 the company set up its own master laboratory in Manila/Phillipines – one of the first laboratories in the world to be certified by TÜV-CERT according to ISO 9001. Today, InteraDent handles over 60,000 orders for dental prostheses per year and is one of Germany’s largest dental laboratories.

EDP serves Silverfleet as a newly created platform for consistent expansion in the European dental industry. EDP also owns the M&W Group, based in Büdingen with companies in Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. M+W is the market leader in dental mail order distribution in Germany and specialises in the distribution of dental consumables and small appliances.

The management of EDP welcomed the acquisition: “InteraDent represents a decisive expansion of our product and service portfolio. The company operates the largest dental laboratory in South-East Asia at present. The cost savings achieved by producing partly outside Germany will be passed on to our customers – while still maintaining the highest quality standards,” says Horst Trimborn, Chairman of EDP.

The successful business operations will further on be led by the existing management board of InteraDent. “The trust in a succesful future of the Group is also emphasised by the reverse-investment of the InteraDent management board in EDP”, says Trimborn

Guido May, a director of Silverfleet Capital GmbH, commented: “The acquisition of InteraDent is a continuation of our Buy & Build strategy of strengthening our investments through external acquisitions to achieve sustainable growth in the value of the company.” The takeover of InteraDent is already EDP’s third acquisition this year, following Dentamed and Stomatol s.r.o. of Prague. In the course of the InteraDent acquisition, EDP was provided with a new finance package amounting to €135 million by the Royal Bank of Scotland (“RBS”). As well as financing the acquisition, the funds were used to refinance the M&W Group.

Silverfleet has demonstrated the success of the Buy & Build strategy with companies such as the Barracuda Group and the Astron Group, both of which grew substantially through acquisitions while being part of PPM's portfolio.

Silverfleet was advised by Close Brothers (M&A), Shearman & Sterling (Finance), PwC (Financial/Tax), Maconda (Commercial) and Skadden Arps (Legal).