GHO, CBC merge to create largest healthcare investment firm
Two top healthcare investors – UK-based GHO and CBC Group of Singapore – have announced a merger to create a massive player in the category with $21 billion in assets under management.
The combined company – billed as the world's largest dedicated healthcare investment manager – will support companies in the pharmaceuticals, medical devices, life science tools, diagnostics, healthcare infrastructure, and healthcare IT, according to a joint statement.
It will have more than 200 investment and operating professionals across 13 offices in the North American, European, and Asia-Pacific regions, which collectively account for around 90% of global healthcare R&D spend.
GHO recently closed its $2.9 billion Fund IV, taking its total assets above the $10.5 billion mark, with its 2025 investments including contract development and manufacturing organisation Avid Bioservices, AI-powered R&D platform developer Scientist.com, and skin diagnostics company FotoFinder Systems.
CBC, meanwhile, has around $10.8 billion in assets under management, with recent investments including the acquisition of UCB's mature product portfolio in China and financings for Singapore-based miRNA cancer diagnosis startup Mirxes and Motiva, which produces breast augmentation and reconstruction technologies.
GHO said the merger will improve the access of its portfolio of North American and European companies to Asia-Pacific investors, while CBC said its client base would benefit from wider global market insight and execution support as they scale internationally.
The name of the group has not yet been announced, but the plan is that two of GHO and CBC's co-founders – respectively Mike Mortimer and Fu Wei – will act as co-chief executives once the merger finalises, expected in the first quarter of 2027.
Andrea Ponti and Alan MacKay will have board responsibilities for oversight of group finance and group governance, respectively, and the board will be co-chaired by Lady Mireille Gillings, vice chair and co-founder of GHO, and Fu.
"The combination is about connecting leading healthcare companies and innovations with the world's largest and most established markets and global pools of capital – by bringing together complementary strengths across Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe," said Fu.
Mortimer said the merger will expand the two investors' reach and help portfolio companies "to compete and win in an increasingly dynamic global healthcare market."
Image by Tamim Ahmed from Pixabay
