Alantra advises Trilantic on its investment into the Smile Eyes Group

Jul 2021

Buy-side advisory

Frankfurt – Alantra is pleased to announce that it has advised European mid-market private equity firm Trilantic Europe (“Trilantic”) on its investment into the Smile Eyes Group (“Smile Eyes”), acting as exclusive M&A and Debt advisor. The investment is structured as a partnership between Trilantic, the two co-founders of Smile Eyes, Dres. Wiltfang and Bechmann, and the management team.

Smile Eyes is a German operator of a leading premium ophthalmology platform. Smile Eyes was founded in 2004 and offers comprehensive service around laser treatments and lens surgeries, treatments of eye diseases such as cataracts, retinal diseases, or glaucoma as well as aesthetic corrections in various metropolitan regions in Germany.

Henrik Bodenstab, Partner at Trilantic, comments: “Smile Eyes is a leading platform in the German ophthalmology market with a truly unique setup, combining conservative treatments with a business-to-consumer approach through the refractive surgery business. We would like to take the opportunity to thank the Alantra team for the useful insights and the high execution commitment throughout this transaction.”

“We would like to thank Henrik and his team for their trust in Alantra’s execution capabilities and market knowledge on this exciting transaction. We believe that the partnership between Smile Eyes’ founders and Trilantic will be very successful in realizing the company’s expansion plans”, Christopher Jobst, Managing Director in M&A at Alantra’s Frankfurt office, comments.

Maximilian Rohardt, Partner in Debt Advisory at Alantra’s Frankfurt office, continues: “We are delighted to have successfully organized a competitive debt workstream in parallel to the M&A process, leading to an attractive financing which will further enhance growth via add-on acquisitions.”