CVC Credit Partners is pleased to announce that it has provided financing to Ardena, a specialist pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO). The funding is in the form of a first lien loan to refinance existing debt as well as an acquisition facility to support the business’ ongoing expansion of its international footprint. MDW Capital served as the debt advisor for the transaction.

Founded in 2013, Ardena is a multi-service CDMO, assisting small-to-mid sized biopharma with services spanning the full development life cycle. The business offers a comprehensive ‘Make, Analyse, File’ model from drug substance and drug product manufacturing and bioanalytical services to regulatory dossier development. With a strong reputation for quality and a flexible service delivery model, Ardena’s differentiated high science approach caters to a diversified base of over 300 customers throughout Europe, the US, Japan and Korea. Headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, it also operates sites in the Netherlands, Sweden and Latvia.

Harry Christiaens, CEO of Ardena, commented: “We are pleased to have completed the refinancing of our credit facility and to have finalised access to a committed acquisition facility. We are now well positioned to continue our strong organic growth profile and drive the next stage of international expansion to better serve our global customer base.”

The partners at GHO Capital added: “Operating within a highly fragmented market, Ardena is the market leading platform from which to build a fully integrated early stage CDMO, serving Biopharma clients globally. CVC Credit Partners are engaged with our vision for the future of the business and their experience of the healthcare sector as well as supporting numerous international growth strategies will be highly beneficial to realising Ardena’s full potential.”

Neale Broadhead, Head of European Private Debt in CVC Credit Partners’ European Private Debt business, said: “Ardena is a quality business which is well positioned to benefit from positive underlying growth trends in its markets. It has a respected and highly qualified team, and an experienced partner in GHO Capital. We are pleased to be able to support Ardena and GHO and look forward to working closely with them both in the years ahead.”