Unavets’s owner Oaktree Capital is set to launch the sale of the veterinary care company imminently, with the sponsor expected to release information memoranda (IMs) this week, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

The veterinary clinics group generated around EUR 15m in EBITDA last year, the first source and a third source said. The company could be valued between EUR 200m and EUR 250m, the first source said, while the third source said that sellers want around EUR 200m.

Jefferies was awarded the sale mandate around October last year, as reported. Following this article, Unavets has a score of 44 out of 100, according to Mergermarket‘s Likely to Exit (LTE) predictive algorithm.*

The company has had preliminary talks with bidders but there have been no formal discussions yet, two further sources familiar with the situation said. The sponsor is still thought to be nervous about launching in the current trading environment and will only go ahead if interest is sufficient, one of these sources added.

Unavets is expected to generate interest from private equity firms, one of the sources said. Meanwhile, the company is also working on vendor due diligence which will be ready at the end of February, another of the sources said.

Unavets has more than 80 clinics in Spain and Portugal.

Oaktree, Unavets and Jefferies declined to comment.

*Mergermarket’s LTE predictive analytics assign a score to sponsor-backed companies to help track and predict when an exit could occur through M&A, an IPO, a direct listing or a deSPAC transaction.