May 20 (Reuters) – One of Europe’s largest healthcare private equity funds, Global Healthcare Opportunities, and Asia’s CBC Group are merging to create the world’s biggest investment manager in the healthcare sector, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The merger is expected to create a $21 billion investor employing more than 200 professionals in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the FT report said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Global Healthcare Opportunities and CBC Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
Global Healthcare Opportunities is a London-based healthcare investor with more than 9 billion euros ($10.44 billion) in assets under management, according to its website. Meanwhile Singapore-based CBC Group is Asia’s largest healthcare-dedicated asset management firm, with about $10.5 billion in assets under management.
Fu Wei, chief executive of CBC, who will share the role in the combined company with Global Healthcare Opportunities co-founder Mike Mortimer, said the merger would protect health groups from AI disruption, the FT report said.
“This gives the healthcare sector the reason to be the most defensive sector. An ageing population would lead to more unknown diseases and the need for more new drugs. Healthcare is therefore an evergreen sector and will continuously be more defensive,” said Wei, as quoted by the FT.
Healthcare, in recent years, has emerged as a key driver for the private credit sector, accounting for about 20% of direct lending deals in 2024, according to Prospect Capital, citing PitchBook data from last year.
($1 = 0.8622 euros)
(Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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