Dental International Sarl, Luxembourg
offers aquisio advisors GmbH a board
seat. As a consequence of the inten-
sified focus on the internationalization
of the group, aquisio advisors GmbH
has been asked to join the manage-
ment board of Dental International Sarl.
Due to the experience in the healthcare
space and the international network,
aquisio advisors GmbH was chosen by
the main shareholder of the group for
this role.

Dental Finance Sarl, Luxembourg
has mandated aquisio advisors GmbH
as strategic advisor. In view of the
envisaged European business ex-
pansion, the management of Dental
Finance Sarl has retained aquisio
advisors GmbH as strategic advisor.
The intention is to foster and streng-
then the groups position in various
European countries and furthermore
identify interesting markets outside
of Europe.

VITALDENT, Europe's largest network
of dental clinics, today announces it
has secured EUR 100 million capital
from Intermediate Capital Group plc
(ICG) in order to pursue its expansion
plans as well as some refinancing.
Founded in 1989 by Ernesto Colman,
VITALDENT currently operates in Spain
and Italy. The EUR 100 million will
enable the company to consolidate its
market share in Spain, increase its net-
work in Italy and expand into Poland.

VITALDENT provides comprehensive
odontological treatments to patients
through its unique business model of
franchised and corporate owned clinics.
VITALDENT offers a fully integrated
network of prosthetic laboratories to
implement a high-quality, seamless
odontological model. VITALDENT is
the undisputed market leader in Spain
and Italy.

With an estimated 7% market share in
Spain, VITALDENT has about 3 times
more clinics than the next biggest den-
tal network. In Italy, VITALDENT's num-
ber of clinics is 5 times larger than any
other operator.
Currently VITALDENT operates
almost 460 dental clinics (including
both franchisees and corporate
owned clinics). Over 3,400 dentists
and 7,200 people in total work for
VITALDENT. VITALDENT has treated
more than 5,700,000 patients
historically and almost 400,000
new patients go to its clinics every
year.

VITALDENT is a well-known brand in
its home markets, and is willing to
replicate this success in new markets.
The Company was ranked amongst
the top 30 most recognised brands
in Spain this year, known for its tech-
nology, innovation and professiona-
lism. The company currently genera-
tes approximately EUR 450 million
network sales per annum and aims
to grow this at 7.5% on average over
the next 5 years. FY2013 EBITDA is
forecast to be approximately EUR
33 million, up 6% from the previous
year.

It's no secret that middle-market
companies sometimes having problems
with their banks if it comes to long
term lending. Although, while interest
rate spreads appear to be gently
bouncing from historical lows, many
borrowers find greater benefits in
seeking flexible terms and conditions
from their lenders. One affirmation
of this trend is the sustained popula-
rity of the Unitranche credit facility.
First created in the mid-2000s, the
Unitranche has since evolved in form
to incorporate a variety of substruc-
tures. Generally speaking, a Unitranche
is a single credit facility that provides
a complete and more flexible capital
solution for the borrower.

Before the invention of the Uni, this
need had largely been filled by a bifur-
cated structure which married a senior
lender with a mezzanine debt provider.
This traditional structure has disadvan-
tages in terms of flexibility and pricing.
With a Unitranche, the borrower needs
to work with only one lender, improving
deal execution.
Traditional senior/sub structures often
rely on stringent principal amortization
schedules - the Unitranche provides
a borrower with more flexibility over
its cash flow as principal repayment 
is structured using a free cash flow
sweep. The pricing of the Untranche
is comparable with the traditional
structure but does not increase over
time as with senior/sub structures,
which rely on repaying the cheaper
senior debt first prior to the subordi-
nated deb repayment.

For these reasons, the Unitranche
has long been a favorite structuring
tool used for growth financings. The
Unitranche offers a greater variety of
structures compared to traditional
senior lending, and their cost of capital
matches well with the asset class. In
the smaller end of the middle market,
the Unitranche has found particular
appeal to asset light businesses that
are able to demonstrate sustainable
cash flow characteristics.

The situation seems paradox. 
Never before, bank credit has been
so cheaply priced as today. The
German Mittelstands companies
were able to achieve a sizeable liqui-
dity cushion due to full order books
and economic prudency. As a result,
most of the companies consider
their financial situation as comfor-
table. Although, there is a growing
concern that in future bank loans
will be available only at higher cost.

The main reason for this skepticism
are the new Basel III regulation, which
will come to effect in 2014 and force
banks to create higher reserves on
granted bank loans, in order to better
compensate for possible defaulting
loans.

As a result, strict controls and higher
risk premiums as well as higher colla-
teral request are expected. The conse-
quence of this might be, that more
and more traditional banks will leave
the business of unsecured, long term
lending to corporates and others will
take their position.
Therefore, companies should in 
time look out for alternative finan-
cing offerings. In this respect, next
to capital market instruments, one
could think of minority shareholders
as well as specialized private debt
funds.

A growing number of institutional
investors, like insurance companies,
pension funds, charitable funds and
other investors discover this asset
class. As usually in the financing
industry, this new trend spreads out
from the US and finds its way via
London to Germany and adjacent
regions. The favorable economic situ-
ation together with the humongous
liquidity will allow the corporates
to make use of these financing alter-
natives and by doing so, lower the
dependency from traditional banks.