CVC Capital Partners and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert offered €51.29 a share, or €10.73 billion ($12.4 billion), to take Italian rare-disease pharma group Recordati private. The price sits 13% above Recordati’s unaffected close on March 25, the day CVC submitted its non-binding interest to the board.
Thirteen percent is thin. CVC already controls the register: its vehicle Rossini holds 46.82% of Recordati and has agreed to tender its full stake, giving the consortium near-majority before a single minority shareholder acts. GBL is committing roughly €1.3 billion alongside ADIA and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board — sovereign and pension capital that doesn’t plan short exits.
What CVC and GBL actually get: a rare-disease operation that generated €1.08 billion in 2025, up 16.6% like-for-like, inside total group revenue of €2.62 billion (up 11.8%). Amgen paid closer to 8x revenue for Horizon Therapeutics, a pure-play rare-disease name, in 2023; Recordati’s rare disease is only 41% of revenue, which explains why the multiple sits at roughly 4x.
The bidders frame the delisting as enabling “a new phase of development” with longer R&D timelines. That’s language for a strategy that won’t survive quarterly earnings calls. With ADIA and Canada Pension Plan co-investing, the hold timeline looks multi-year. CVC will have to demonstrate rare-disease growth at scale before any exit makes sense at a better multiple.
The tender closes through Respighi BidCo and targets Q4 2026.
Diana Kowalski