Tikehau backs French homecare business

Tikehau has contributed to a €25 million private placement arranged by Société Générale and supplied to a French homecare business.

Bastide was established almost 30 years ago and provides homecare assistance, as well as a number of other services, across France, Belgium and Switzerland. The company is valued at €158 million and employs 1,265 people. It is listed on Euronext Paris.

Through its three business arms – Homecare Assistance, Nutrition Infusion and Respiratory Assistance – Bastide distributes products by selling and renting nursing beds, wheelchairs, rollators, etc. and offers services such as installation and maintenance of medical devices.

Tikehau contributed €8.5 million to the private placement from the Novo 2 fund, a vehicle established in 2013 by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, the French government’s public financing body, and 27 insurance companies. The length of the loan is seven years, which is in keeping with the fund’s strategy of providing loans which average between six and seven years in maturity.

The mandate of the vehicle is to direct capital towards French small and medium-sized enterprises. To date, the fund has invested more than €365 million in 20 companies with loan terms averaging almost seven years. In total, the fund has €500 million and the firm expects it to be fully invested in the next 12 months. The firm declined to disclose the target IRR.

Nathalie Bleunven, head of corporate lending at Tikehau, said: “Bastide is operating in the homecare services market, which is an industry that has attracted a lot of attention from private equity sponsors. There is a lot of prospect for growth and the company has plans to expand its operations across Europe, which makes the transaction very attractive to us.”