Investment firm The Carlyle Group will acquire Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH) and merge the business with rival Associated Dental Practices (ADP) to form the UK’s largest dental services group.

Investment firm The Carlyle Group will acquire Integrated Dental Holdings (IDH) and merge the business with rival Associated Dental Practices (ADP) to form the UK’s largest dental services group.

The deal, which is backed by ADP investor private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners, will see Bank of America Merrill Lynch Capital Partners offload its entire stake in IDP to Carlyle.  Carlyle will hold a majority stake in the new merged entity, while Palamon will share joint governance, the firm said in a statement.

The two dental provides operate a combined total of nearly 450 practices and serve more than 3.5 million patients a year, mostly in NHS dentistry. Following the deal, the business will embark on an aggressive growth strategy, including expanding the number of surgeries, and begin to offer other primary care and cosmetic treatments.

Financial details were not disclosed, however, new equity for the transaction comes from the Carlyle Europe Partners III fund, while Palamon Capital Partners had invested in ADP through its second fund, Palamon European Equity II, the statement said.

Richard Smith, chief executive of IDH, who will lead the merged business, comments: ‘This investment will allow us to provide more services across more practices with better quality of patient care in dentistry and potentially other primary healthcare fields too.’