Pava Partners advised Waterland Private Equity (“Waterland”) and other shareholders on the sale of shares in Eye Clinic Holding GmbH, owner of Zentrum Gesundheit GmbH (“Zentrum Gesundheit”), to NORD Holding Unternehmensbeteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (“NORD Holding”) and Deutsche Mittelstandsholding. The other shareholders, consisting of physicians and management, have reinvested and will continue to be available to the company in the future. The parties have agreed not to disclose further details of the transaction.

With 12 branches at nine locations, Zentrum Gesundheit is the largest group of medical care centres in the field of ophthalmology in Lower Saxony and Bremen. Founded in 1990 in Leer as a joint practice, Zentrum Gesundheit has developed into a fast-growing practice network with state-of-the-art equipment while fulfilling highest quality standards. Following the entry of Waterland in 2017, further conservative and operative practices were acquired and integrated.  Today, the Zentrum Gesundheit employs over 230 employees and approximately 40 doctors.

Together with NORD Holding, Zentrum Gesundheit will continue to drive growth by opening and acquiring further locations while maintaining highest quality standards.

Dr. Carsten Rahlfs, Managing Partner at Waterland Private Equity, is pleased that with “NORD Holding, we were able to find an experienced midmarket investor in the healthcare sector for Zentrum Gesundheit. Over the past two years, we have laid a solid foundation for the further development of the practice network and were able to expand the Zentrum Gesundheit by seven new locations. Together with the management team, we have thus created ideal conditions for further expansion.“

Dieter Hagedorn, ophthalmologist and Managing Partner of Zentrum Gesundheit, thanks Waterland for its support in the positive development and cooperative partnership. “With NORD Holding as our new strategic partner, we now want to continue along this path and consistently pursue the growth course.”

About Waterland

Waterland is an independent private equity investment group that supports entrepreneurs in realizing their growth ambitions. With substantial financial resources and committed industry expertise, Waterland enables its portfolio companies to achieve accelerated growth both organically and through acquisitions. Waterland has offices in Belgium (Antwerp), the Netherlands (Bussum), UK (Manchester), Germany (Munich and Hamburg), Switzerland (Zurich), Denmark (Copenhagen) and Poland (Warsaw) and currently manages € 6 billion of investor commitments.

Since its founding in 1999, Waterland has consistently achieved above-average performance with its investments and has regularly ranked among the top 3 leading private equity firms worldwide in the past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Performance Rankings.

About Zentrum Gesundheit

Zentrum Gesundheit is an association of experienced specialists in ophthalmology and offers the entire spectrum of ophthalmology from a single source. Zentrum Gesundheit’s focus of treatment includes outpatient treatment, cataract, glaucoma, diabetic and age-related retinal diseases, strabismus and the corresponding outpatient surgical treatment.

About NORD Holding

With its 50-year history and over € 2.0 billion Assets under Management, NORD Holding is one of the leading Private Equity Asset Managers in Germany with a focus on direct and fund investments. The direct investments division of NORD Holding focuses on structuring and financing company succession models, acquiring parts of larger groups/subsidiaries as well as on expansion financing of medium-sized companies. In contrast to most other financial investors, who only manage closed-end funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “evergreen fund”, thereby investing from its own balance sheet with no maturity restrictions. Currently, the fund has interests in more than 15 companies in the DACH region.