Our ambitious approach to sustainability has played a critical role in improving the resilience of our portfolio companies during the pandemic. ByPhilippe Poletti, Head of Ardian Buyout and Member of the Executive Committee Although the pandemic posed 40 countries, huge investments in R&D and annual enormous challenges to societies and revenues of around €700 million. businesses worldwide, the Ardian Buyout team was able to respond positively and In addition, we made more than 17 add-on close landmark transactions. acquisitions for portfolio companies during 2020 and agreed a series of successful exits, including In 2020, we completed six deals and are DRT, Envision Pharma Group and Kersia. In each now established at the lower end of the large capcase, the outcome proved the advantages of our buyout market, with the ability to offer our LPs majorfocus on resilient companies in global niche markets, co-investment opportunities. capable of sustaining rapid growth. In October, two years after establishing our We believe our ambitious approach to team in New York, we completed Ardian Buyout’s sustainability has played a critical role in improving first acquisition in North America, with the purchaseour companies’resilience – the most sought- of a 50% stake in ANGUS, a leading specialty after quality among investors during 2020. We chemicals company. This was our largest transactionformalized our approach last year with the launch to date, and it represents an important milestone forof our Sustainable Buyout framework. This moves Ardian and our activity. beyond internally focused ESG scores to examine the company’s entire value chain, from suppliers In Europe, our team announced another through to the impact of its products and services on dealthat demonstrates our ability to build society. Using this methodology, we are setting clear significant companies globally. Just months aftertargets for companies to help them to go beyond the Dedalus acquired Aceso, a carve-out of Agfa sole purpose of financial value creation and to make Healthcare’s IT business, and created Europe’s a positive impact on the planet and society at large. largest healthcare software provider, we added the Healthcare Software Solutions division of DXC In this way, Ardian Buyout is becoming a Technology, a leading US IT services company. Thispowerful agent of change, improving all aspects of elevates Dedalus to a global leadership position incorporate performance and creating businesses that hospital and diagnostic software, with operations incan command premium valuations in the long term. 2020 ACTIVITY REPORT 57