German Fund Aurelius Buys PIP Implants Firm

A secretive German investment fund has snapped up the cosmetic surgery provider at the centre of a controversy over PIP breast implants involving thousands of British women.

Sky News has learned that the owners of Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group agreed a sale earlier this week to Aurelius Investments.

And both the new owners and Transform itself have refused to publicly rule out using a contentious takeover mechanism called a pre-pack administration, which enables the buyers of companies' assets to acquire them without taking on historic legal liabilities.

An announcement about the Aurelius takeover could be made as soon as this week, although a Transform spokesman said there were "no current plans" to announce the deal.

The price and exact terms of the transaction, or its scheduled completion date, were unclear on Thursday.

Transform, which marked its 40th anniversary earlier this year, was majority-owned by Candlewick, a joint venture between TPG, the private equity firm, and an arm of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank.

It was previously minority-owned by Lloyds Banking Group, the taxpayer-backed lender.

The controversy over PIP implants sprang to prominence in 2011 when some women reported that breast enlargement procedures using Poly Implant Protheses, an industrial-grade silicone, had ruptured.

Transform and other cosmetic surgery providers became embroiled in a row with then-health secretary Andrew Lansley in January 2012 when they refused to pay for the removal of the defective implants, citing their prior approval by the Government and health watchdogs.

It is unclear whether a pre-pack administration would allow Transform's new owner to shed financial responsibility for outstanding claims from patients who were given faulty PIP breast implants.

Insiders say that Transform, which had a large share of the market for PIP breast enhancement surgery, continues to have "a large number" of outstanding claims against it.

The company operates more than 25 clinics across the UK, and it is thought that approval for a change of control may be required from the Care Quality Commission, the industry regulator.

Representatives for Transform, which offers a wide range of other cosmetic surgery treatments, Aurelius and Candlewick all declined to comment on the deal.

Aurelius and Transform also refused to discuss the prospective use of a pre-pack administration or other corporate restructuring procedure.