The European M&A market heated up recently, with 2 large transactions in progress: that of Zentiva and that of STADA. The deals show us that the pharma industry is quite attractive, especially for private equity funds. According to our calculations, the companies’ transactions are valued at an EV/EBITDA multiple of 10.25x (Zentiva) and 11.29x (STADA), respectively, comparable to listed companies such as Krka (TTM H1 2025 EV/EBITDA of 11.5x), but above other players such as Richter Gedeon (EV/EBITDA of 6x), and Hikma Pharma (EV/EBITDA of 6.3x). In this overview, we take a look at detailed look at these 2 transactions.
Zentiva
Firstly, we have Zentiva. Zentiva is a pan-European pharma company specializing in high-quality, affordable generic medicines, operating in over 30 countries, offering over 2,650 country-specific products across several areas, employing over 5k people, and serving more than 100m patients across Europe. While the Company’s history is long and varied, we are really interested in the last couple of years to have the context for the entire story. Zentiva was initially acquired by Advent International, a private equity firm, back in 2018, for a consideration of EUR 1.9bn.
The trend of the private equity funds entering into pharma companies has been present for years now, and the generics market in particular, based primarily on European companies, has seen a lot of growth in the last couple of years. With that acquisition, Advent continued to invest in Zentiva’s product portfolio and production capacity, both through organic means and through acquisitions by the fund, which synergized with Zentiva. During the 2018 – 2025 period, Zentiva managed to more than double its revenue and EBITDA, reaching EUR 1.7bn in revenue in 2024, and an EBITDA of app. EUR 400m.
In essence, the aim of the fund was to make Zentiva (which was, before that, part of Sanofi, one of the largest players in the industry in Europe) a standalone unit that focuses exclusively on generic products, rather than the broad range of products offered by Sanofi. Due to the state of health and healthcare in general, the demand for generics remains high, and the margins are supportive of profitable development as well.
This brings us to the current deal, one in which Advent sells Zentiva to GTCR, a US-based private equity firm, with the deal being valued at EUR 4.1bn, and an EV/EBITDA of 10.25x, comparable to other market participants in the industry. In fact, the average pharma industry EV/EBITDA hovers around 12.7x according to Bloomberg.
EV/EBITDA* multiples comparison (transaction multiples, listed companies, pharma industry average)
Source: Companies data, Bloomberg, InterCapital Research
*EV/EBITDA multiples based on the latest available data, i.e., either TTM 2024, TTM Q1 2025, TTM H1 2025
The time period before the deal has been characterized as successful. Not only did the Company grow significantly during this period and thus bring in strong cash flows for the Advent, but now, if finalized at current values, the deal’s value is more than double what it was only 7 years ago. In other words, the management of the Company during this period, both internal and from the fund, has been great, leading to this improvement in valuation.
But while one side (Advent) found the current growth levels and the deal size to be sufficient for their exit, GTCR is seeing more potential, and given the deal size, a lot of potential for further growth and development. In fact, GTCR has a history of backing pharma companies and plans to support Zentiva’s next growth stage through continued expansion of its pipeline and geographic reach.
We would also like to note that the sale has been the result of a competitive bidding process. A lot of speculation has been made within the industry about Zentiva’s sale. For example, Poland’s Polpharma and India’s Aurobindo Pharma were potential bidders in 2021, with Aurobindo extending this even further, with a rumored offer of EUR 5.5bn in 2025. Despite the larger offer, Advent sold Zentiva to GTCR in the end, given the proven track record and plans for further expansion of the Company.
Thus, in here we see a successful example (most of them unfortunately aren’t) of a private equity fund buying, investing, expanding a company, and then also selling it off for a significant markup (at least compared to what they paid for it).
STADA
Moving on to STADA, a company headquartered in Germany, with over 100 years of history, STADA is one of the leading producers of generic prescription drugs and OTC healthcare products, and it has also expanded into specialty pharmaceuticals. With its products, it is present in over 120 countries, employing app. 11.6k people worldwide, and having generated a revenue of EUR 4.06bn and an adj. EBITDA of EUR 886m in 2024.
The Company has been owned by private equity owners Bain Capital and Cinven since 2017, and during that period, the Company achieved a revenue CAGR of 9% per year and more than doubled its EBITDA. This growth was supported by both organic growth but also by a wide range of acquisitions – over 25 of them since 2018.
The transaction described right now was announced only recently (early September 2025), and the aim of the transaction is to sell a majority stake (app. 70% of STADA) from these owners to CapVest Partners, a London-based buyout firm. The deal details have also been announced, with STADA being valued at EUR 10bn in terms of enterprise value, meaning that app. EUR 7bn would have to be transacted for the deal. According to the latest available information, the EV/EBITDA of the transaction is valued at 11.29x, again clearly in line with peers and the industry average.
Post deal, Bain and Civen will retain a minority stake in STADA, which is also demonstrating their confidence that further expansion could be expected on the part of the Company. Compared to that initial deal in 2017, which was valued at app. EUR 5.3bn, we are again seeing an almost doubling (at least in terms of EV and not deal size), in the value of the Company. While Bain and Cinven considered an IPO in 2023 and 2024 for STADA, the volatile market conditions led to delays, which, in the end, cancelled the listing plans by H1 2025.
The deal would allow these players to exit and return value to their investors, while at the same time, maintaining a stake that could grow further as the Company develops. From CapVest’s perspective, STADA is attractive due to its strong cash flows, diversified products, and growth prospects in both the generic and consumer health markets. Even though we do not have the 2025 EBITDA numbers, if they were valued at those, the deal would end up close to an EV/EBITDA of 10x. On the other hand, the original deal in 2017 was at 12x EBITDA, meaning that CapVest was able to negotiate down a price, leaving even more room for an upside. If STADA’s forecast for 2025 is correct (EUR 4.6bn revenue, 22% EBITDA margin), further growth could be expected.
This is also supported by the fact that the generic drugs market is highly competitive, with competition from countries such as India or China. However, with the fast growth, combined with the investments that were made by previous owners and now, the soon-to-be new owners, higher production capacity was and could still be achieved, leading to a broader category of products being offered.
The competitive nature was also present in this deal, with GTCR also looking at STADA before their announcement of the Zentiva acquisition. These 2 transactions, and for sure others which could come soon, are showing that the European M&A market, especially in the pharma/generic drugs industry, is still alive and well. Not only that, but it is thriving. While there have been many examples of private equity funds taking over companies and then “scrapping them” for value, here we see the complete opposite: funds that entered, invested, expanded, and then sold at a significantly higher price. While it could be argued that these moves also lead to a consolidation in the industry, consolidation is required to achieve better economies of scale, especially in this type of industry where competition is strong. Will this lead to higher prices down the road due to fewer players, or will it mean that competition from abroad will intensify? It is hard to say. What could be said, though – pharma is flying high right now.