Bourn Hall, which was set up as the world's first IVF clinic by Patrick Steptoe and Nobel Prize winning Robert Edwards in 1978 after the birth of “test-tube” baby Louise Brown, has agreed a deal with Mobeus Equity Partners, securing an initial minority investment of £3.5 million.
The investment will help finance the clinic’s UK expansion plans which include acquisition and partnership with existing IVF providers and the development of several new, full service fertility centres and satellite clinics.
Expansion in recent years has seen the opening of new, full service clinics in Colchester and Norwich and satellite centres in Wickford and Luton. Bourn Hall is the largest provider of NHS funded IVF treatment in the East of England. As well as the five sites in the UK, there are three in Dubai and India and a clinic will soon be opening in China.
Dr Mike Macnamee, Chief Executive of Bourn Hall, says, “We are now helping three times as many people to become parents than in 2005 and a Bourn Hall baby is now born every ten hours. Over the last four years we have established a network of new clinics and satellites that provide patients with personalised treatment programmes and excellent success rates, close to where they live. The funding will support the opening of further clinics by 2015 and will generate new jobs in these areas.”
The Mills & Reeve team included partner Tom Pickthorn, associate Natalie Wade, solicitor Hannah Aldous and senior solicitor Emma Keen. Tom said: “We were delighted to have been able to advise Bourn Hall on this major investment which will help them to achieve further expansion. They are, and always have been, at the forefront of IVF treatment and this deal will enable them to help create even more families.”
See also: Mobeus Equity Partners to fund Bourn Hall Clinic expansion
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