European HealthTech and MedTech Corporate Divestitures

Nelson Advisors offers a robust and comprehensive suite of M&A services that address the full corporate strategic lifecycle. This includes traditional Buy Side and Sell Side Advisory and specialised offerings critical to corporate development and private equity portfolio management, such as Portfolio Optimisation, Roll-Up Strategies, Tech Asset Sales and Corporate Divestitures.

In the current European M&A market, corporate divestitures are fundamentally strategic operations, not merely reactive sales. Market analysis confirms that corporations and Private Equity firms strategically employ divestitures to streamline existing portfolios and effectively redirect capital toward core business areas with the highest growth potential.

This process transforms divestiture into a strategic growth driver. By shedding non-core or underperforming assets, or divisions that no longer align with the company’s primary focus, the parent entity can significantly enhance its capital efficiency and improve its overall valuation profile. This focused investment is particularly acute in HealthTech, where companies must prioritise high growth segments like AI or clinically differentiated MedTech solutions. 

Nelson Advisors' role is to optimise the structure of such sales, whether they involve spin offs, carve outs or sales of entire divisions, ensuring that the maximum achievable shareholder value for the divested asset is realised.

The prominence of Private Equity (PE) in the European Healthcare market reinforces the necessity of this specialisation. The PE sector recorded a high volume of European healthcare deals in 2024, emphasising portfolio optimisation. Since PE investment cycles rely heavily on strategic refinement through divestiture to prepare assets for fund exits, Nelson Advisors’ specific service line covering Corporate Divestitures and Portfolio Optimisation positions them ideally to serve financial sponsors looking to refine their HealthTech and MedTech holdings.

The competitive differentiation of Nelson Advisors is rooted in the unique combination of the founding partners' skill sets: successful operational experience coupled with institutional M&A rigour. This dual competency provides a specialised advisory model that generalist firms cannot replicate.

Differentiation in the European M&A Advisory Landscape

Nelson Advisors operates within a competitive landscape that includes global investment banks and major consulting firms such as Rothschild & Co (ranked highly by volume and value), Deloitte (a prominent mid-market M&A advisor), Houlihan Lokey, and Goldman Sachs.

While these large institutions offer global scale, Nelson Advisors differentiates itself through HealthTech and MedTech specialisation, a hands on approach and deep industry knowledge. This focused approach allows the firm to strategically target specific market opportunities that larger firms might overlook.

One clear area of differentiation is the firm's explicit focus on "Series A Exits". This responsiveness addresses a critical challenge in the contemporary market, where a tighter Venture Capital (VC) environment and public market volatility have disrupted the traditional growth trajectory (Series B, C, then IPO) For high-potential, earlier-stage HealthTech companies struggling to secure follow-on funding, an early strategic sale or divestiture offers a pragmatic path to liquidity and integration into a larger corporate structure. This strategy ensures Nelson Advisors captures a significant segment of advisory mandates for companies that require crucial alternatives to traditional financing paths.

Furthermore, the firm proactively establishes itself as an authoritative voice in the market through continuous publication of reports and analyses, contributing to the understanding of the European HealthTech M&A landscape This thought leadership, which has been cited in major publications, establishes credibility and provides clients with market-validated valuation metrics necessary to substantiate the price of a divested asset.