Asabys integrates Aliath and becomes a leader in its sector in the State

BarcelonaAltamarCAM Partners, a global investment firm specializing in private markets, and Asabys Partners, a Catalan private equity firm specializing in healthcare, have reached an agreement to integrate Altamar's healthcare and life sciences team, previously part of its subsidiary Aliath Bioventures, into Asabys, and Ligafescie into the Alta fund.

The merger of both teams represents an opportunity to form a benchmark team in Europe, a leader in life sciences in Spain, according to Clara Campàs, co-founding partner and managing director of Asabys. The investment teams of both firms have been working together for several years on the boards of several companies in which both managers have invested, such as Deepull, Ona, and Inbrain, having executed similar investment strategies.

These years of joint work have facilitated a natural rapprochement between the two firms, which share a common strategic vision and complementary investment philosophy, as explained by both companies. The merger will enhance capabilities, generate synergies, and ensure continued value creation for investors, the companies assert.

As part of this agreement, the Alta Life Sciences Spain I FCR fund will be co-managed by both firms. Asabys' founding partners, Clara Campàs and Josep Sanfeliu, will become members of the fund's investment committee, and the Aliat Bioventures team will join Asabys; in particular, Montserrat Vendrell and José María Fernández, who will become partners at Asabys. With this integration, Asabys will integrate five people from Aliath, bringing its total to 17, and will allow for 30% growth, according to Campàs, who asserts that the transaction already represents €400 million in management and 25 holdings.

"Consolidation" of the sector

For Josep Sanfeliu, this is "a first step" in the sector's consolidation process, he said in an interview with ARA. According to Sanfeliu, this consolidation process "has already happened in Europe, but not yet in Spain." For the founding partner of Asabys, the concentration of the sector is a "trend that makes sense given the pressure from investors to increase profitability." In this sense, he believes that a fragmented market "doesn't make sense."

The strengthened team plans to launch new investment funds focused on the life sciences market, to cover different segments and facilitate future collaboration between both asset managers in areas of common interest. José Luis Molina, CEO of AltamarCAM Partners, commented: "Private markets are going through a consolidation phase in which, in order to compete, it is necessary to build top-level technical teams and scale them appropriately to optimize the probability of investment success."