By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS (Reuters) -France’s Ceva Animal Health has raised 5.5 billion euros ($5.95 billion) in equity, boosting its valuation to 9.2 billion euros, as shareholders including the billionaire Bettencourt-Meyers family increased their stake, its chief executive said on Monday.
Ceva, fifth-ranked in animal health worldwide by revenue, is known for its focus on vaccines and preventive medicine.
The Bettencourt-Meyers family, heirs to the founder of cosmetic giant L’Oreal and the largest shareholder in the company, doubled its investment in Ceva through their Tethys Invest holding.
Other large shareholders boosted their stake, including the Merieux family and Canada’s pension fund PSP Investments, Ceva CEO Marc Prikazsky told Reuters.
The latest fundraising is part of a regular refinancing plan organised by the company every four to five years.
“In five years we’ll reshuffle the cards. Maybe we’ll go public,” Prikazsky said.
“The company being much bigger and having more visibility on the stock exchange could be a good option,” the CEO added, stressing that Ceva’s aim was to become the world’s leader in animal health.
Ceva’s competitors include U.S. companies Zoetis and Merck Animal Health, and Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim.
Other investors such as Singapore’s state investment company Temasek also renewed its commitment to Ceva while French healthcare focused investment firm Archimed joined the group.
Based in southwestern France but operating in 47 countries, Ceva reported revenue of 1.77 billion euros ($1.91 billion) in 2024.
The company was one of the several approached by the U.S. government, which said it was looking at vaccination as one option to contain a severe outbreak of the bird flu virus that led to the culling of millions of birds and sent egg prices soaring.
Ceva’s bird flu vaccine is one of the two, along with Boehringer Ingelheim’s, picked by the French government for its nationwide bird flu vaccination campaign.
($1 = 0.9249 euros)
($1 = 0.9258 euros)
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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