KKR, Warburg, Cinven eye bids for clinical trial firm PRA

Reuters 04 June 2013
(Reuters) – Private equity firms KKR & Co LP, Warburg Pincus LLC and Cinven Ltd are weighing bids for PRA International, a clinical research group, which is for sale and could fetch as much as $1.3 billion, several people familiar with the matter said.
The buyout firms are among the parties preparing to submit second-round bids later in June for Raleigh, North Carolina-based PRA, the sources said this week, asking not to be identified because the auction is not public.
Private equity firm Genstar Capital LLC, which acquired PRA in 2007 for $797 million, put the company on the auction block earlier this year, two years after its earlier effort to sell PRA failed over price, the sources said.
Genstar is also considering an initial public offering for PRA and could pursue that route should private equity bidders fail to meet its price expectations, the people said. PRA could be valued at as much as $1.3 billion based on annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of around $130 million, they added.
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