Sale or flotation

Integrated Dental Holdings, the UK's largest privately owned dental chain, will either be put up for sale or floated on the stock market by private equity firm Carlyle Group LP.

According to recent reports the owner of IDH has asked investment banks to pitch for a role advising it on a deal later this year.

IDH, which has a network of 570 dental practices in England, Scotland and Wales and around 2,500 employers, is majority-owned by The Carlyle Group, one of the world's biggest private equity investors.

IDH calls itself the biggest dental corporate organisation in Europe, focusing primarily on NHS patients but with private and specialist practices as an increasingly important revenue stream.

According to bondholder filings for the final three months of 2013, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the financial year to date rose by 21 per cent to £48.7m.

The company was founded in 1996 by Luke Johnson, the entrepreneur who previously owned Pizza Express and who is floating Patisserie Valerie on the London Stock Exchange.