The deal

Our Corporate Finance team has successfully advised University Hospital Southampton on the sale of Complete Fertility Centre to Virtus Health and management for £5.55 million.

The team provided lead advisory services to both the Directors of Complete Fertility Centre, Southampton and to University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust itself, completing a thorough marketing and sales process and project managing the process through to a successful exchange. Complete Fertility Centre is part of the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, based in Princess Anne Hospital Southampton. Established in 2011, the centre is now a leading fertility clinic on the south coast of Britain with approximately 50% of the regional market share.

The clinic offers a full and comprehensive range of fertility treatments and advanced scientific technologies including time lapse imaging of embryos, a highly successful egg donation programme and innovative procedures including ovarian tissue cryopreservation and in-vivo embryo culture. Virtus Health is Australia’s largest Assisted Reproductive Services (ARS) provider. Virtus were looking to expand into the UK market as part of their international growth strategy for diversification and expansion of the Virtus model. Complete Fertility Centre presented an excellent opportunity – the centre is recognised as one of the National Training centres for ARS and hosts training programs for reproductive scientists and clinicians.

The existing Complete Fertility management team, led by founding directors Professor Ying Cheong and Julia Paget, will retain 10% of the business and will continue to oversee the centre on a day-to-day basis and will work with the Virtus European management team to grow the business further.

“Complete Fertility and Virtus share many common values. The foundations of both organisations are built on providing the best possible treatment and care for those trying to have a baby and create the family they desire. Virtus is setting high standards in ARS and leading best practice globally and we want to be part of this for our patients and the Complete Fertility team. We are excited by these opportunities. The team operates with a wide breadth of experience in negotiation and played a significant role in assisting us orchestrate our deal. They were available 24/7 and offered immense tenacity crucial for the completion of our deal.” Ying Cheong, Medical Director Professor, Complete Fertility.