Fountainvest, TPG, Warburg among bidders for Carlyle’s Ambio stake

Private equity firms Fountainvest Capital Partners, TPG and Warburg Pincus are among final-round bidders for Carlyle Group’s stake in AmbioPharm Inc, people with knowledge of the transaction told Reuters.

Carlyle, which is targeting a valuation of $1 billion for Ambio in a sale, is expecting binding bids in the coming days, said three of the people. A deal could be reached by end-September at the earliest, said one of them.

Carlyle, Fountainvest, TPG and Warburg all declined to comment. The sources declined to be identified as the information is confidential.

Investment bank Jefferies has been hired by Carlyle to run the sale, Reuters has previously reported. The bank did not immediately comment.

Carlyle bought a significant minority stake in Ambio, a peptide active pharmaceutical ingredient contract development and manufacturing organisation, from specialist healthcare fund MVM Partners in 2018 for an undisclosed amount. Its current ownership level in Ambio could not be determined.

Founded in 2007 by scientist and entrepreneur Chris Bai, Ambio is headquartered in South Carolina, United States and also has peptide manufacturing and purification facilities in Shanghai, China.

The firm provides services for drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and the China National Medical Products Administration and has a pipeline of pre-clinical and clinical programmes.

Source: Reuters