Irish breast implant maker raises €85m, backed by Barry’s Tea

A Dublin-based breast implant maker whose backers include Irish tech entrepreneur Bill McCabe and the company behind Barry’s Tea, has raised $97 million (€85.4 million) in new capital.

GC Aesthetics, which stands for Global Consolidated Aesthetics, was founded in 2007 and is the umbrella company for two leading implant manufacturers: Nagor and Eurosilicone. The company manufactures nearly 600 types of implants and more than 2.5 million women and men globally have used its products.

The financing comprises a combination of debt provided by Hayfin Capital Management, and an equity investment from existing investors that includes Montreux Equity Partners, The Barry family and Mr McCabe's Oyster Capital.

GC said it intends to use the capital to refinance its outstanding debt, to fund additional product innovation and to support a study aimed at winning FDA approval for its beast implant products in the US.

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The company, which employs almost 400 people worldwide, previously raised $110 million in total, according to figures provided by Pitchbook.

GC, whose head office is in Sandyford, Co Dublin, has manufacturing facilities in England, Scotland and France. Its products are sold either directly or through its distributor network in more than 70 countries.

“This financing, along with our continued solid financial performance, validates the strength and potential of our global, vertically-integrated healthcare aesthetics implant business. Additionally, the refinancing of our existing debt provides GCA with financial flexibility to pursue strategic growth initiatives, including the possibility of entering the US market with our competitively differentiated products,” said Carolos Reis Pinto, chief executive of GC.

The most recently available accounts for the company show it recorded revenues of $58 million in 2016, with $54 million of this attributable to sales of breast implant products. It reported a $10 million operating loss that same year and an loss before tax of €41.1 million.

In an interview with the Financial Times in 2014, then chief executive Ayse Kocak said the margin on implants had lowered substantially due to tighter regulations introduced in the wake of the PIP scandal. The scandal involved the French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), which was found to have used industrial-grade silicone in breast implant products, instead of medical-grade material, making them much more susceptible to rupturing.

GC filed for a planned initial public offering on the Nasdaq in May 2015, intending to sell 5,350,000 shares at a price range of $13 to $15 per share. However, it cancelled the $75 million listing just four months later due to market conditions.

Hayfin, which is providing the debt financing to GC, is a London-headquartered company that has extended more than €14 billion in loans to over 285 companies since it was founded in 2009. The firm’s total assets under management are valued at about €10 billion.