Cédric Moreau discusses Apollo deal on "Journal des Biotechs"

Cédric Moreau appeared Wednesday, June 8, on Boursorama's show "Journal des Biotechs" to speak with host Laurent Grassin about the recent deal under which Apollo took a minority stake in Sofinnova and agreed to invest $1 billion in its funds.

From the outset, Moreau, a partner with Sofinnova Partners' Crossover Strategy, stressed two points: Sofinnova's determination to remain independent (Apollo's stake is 20 percent) and use Apollo's financial firepower to continue its growth trajectory.

Moreau pointed out that Apollo, with around $500 billion under management, only had about $5 billion invested in the healthcare industries. "For them, it's not much, and it's more or less invested in services, hospital infrastructure and the like, and not really in true innovation," Moreau said, adding that for Apollo, the deal "is a way to quickly access expertise."

"I think that they did an enormous amount of due diligence, and we're pleased that they chose Sofinnova as their life sciences partner," Moreau said.

Grassin and Moreau discussed a flurry of recent deals for European healthcare investors, which Moreau said was proof that "in Europe, the science is of great quality, and the teams at investment funds are world class and very capable, with ambitious strategies."

So, Grassin asked, would Sofinnova Partners be shifting its overall strategy?

"Why change something that is working?" Moreau responded. "Apollo, and this makes sense in the context of a minority deal, they've understood that we've been around for 50 years and it's been going pretty well — very well. They had absolutely no desire to change our strategy in any case."

For Moreau, the Apollo deal is all about synergy and mutual benefit. "We'll be something like their in-house incubator," he said, "bringing companies to market, to commercialization, potentially providing them with acquisitions for their portfolio."

"And for us," he added, "we'll be able to benefit from their means, their reputation and their range of services. They're in credit, real-estate ... you can imagine that we already have a few good ideas and that with Apollo's firepower we'll be able to set up new funds and new strategies quickly enough."