Hippocrates Holding secures debt financing package of over €900 million to support further growth.

Milan, 16 December 2022 - Hippocrates Holding (“Hippocrates”), Italy's first and largest independent proximity healthcare platform with a network of more than 300 pharmacies, announces today that it has successfully raised a debt financing package of over €900 million to support its next stage of growth. The deal is a market-first for large cap social infrastructure in Italy and is one of the largest debt raises by an Italian private issuer in 2022.

Hippocrates has signed the new financing package with a pool of 15 lenders consisting of historic Italian relationship banks, international infrastructure lenders and large infrastructure debt funds. In addition to refinancing the existing credit lines to simplify operations, the agreement provides over €420 million of funding to support growth. The growth plan is focused on continued development of its network and the delivery of best in class service to patients. Hippocrates will continue to deploy its innovative pharmacy model to build on today’s position as the leading player in the Italian proximity healthcare sector with 2,000 employees and over €500 million revenues, including plans to further strengthen its presence throughout Italy, with all new pharmacies benefitting from the “Lafarmacia.” brand.

Part of the new financing package secured will also fund the construction of a new centralised logistics warehouse, which will bring significant operational efficiencies to Hippocrates’s growing network of pharmacies.

The Italian proximity healthcare sector is underpinned by a stable and attractive regulatory framework, with pharmacies widely recognised as the essential first point of access for patients to healthcare advice. During the process, there was strong appetite from both international and domestic financing providers who were attracted by the well-established infrastructure profile of pharmacies as well as the growth track record achieved to date by an industry-leading management team. Hippocrates was able to upsize the financing package from the initial target, despite the current macro-economic environment.

"This is a very important refinancing that represents a significant milestone in the history of Hippocrates and sets a new benchmark for the entire Italian proximity healthcare sector. The transaction will enable us to further strengthen the fundamental ingredients of our consistent growth, including our intuition for identifying great opportunities for development and innovation, our integration of new services within the role of the Italian pharmacy, and our unique combination of a physical pharmacy interfaced with a digital platform. We now look to further consolidate our leadership position."

commented Davide Tavaniello, co-founder and CEO of Hippocrates Holding.

Mediobanca (financial) and Ashurst (legal) advised Hippocrates Holding, whilst Latham & Watkins (lenders counsel) acted for the pool of lenders. Intesa and Natixis were documentation coordinators. The pool of lenders participating in the new financing package include: Banca Ifis; Banco Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna; Banco Popolare di Milano; BNP Paribas Asset Management; Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank; Edmond de Rothschild’s BRIDGE; Intesa Sanpaolo – IMI Corporate & Investment Banking; Goldman Sachs; KommunalKredit; Natixis; Nomura; Société Générale; and Vantage Infrastructure.