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Company raised 5.5 bln euros in equity from investors

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Sees going public in four to five years

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L'Oreal's family Bettencourt-Meyers boosted stake

By Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS, March 31 (Reuters) - France's Ceva Animal Health

has raised 5.5 billion euros ($5.95 billion) in equity, boosting

its valuation to 9.2 billion euros, as shareholders including

the billionaire Bettencourt-Meyers family increased their stake,

its chief executive said on Monday.

Ceva, fifth-ranked in animal health worldwide by revenue, is

known for its focus on vaccines and preventive medicine.

The Bettencourt-Meyers family, heirs to the founder of

cosmetic giant L'Oreal and the largest shareholder in

the company, doubled its investment in Ceva through their Tethys

Invest holding.

Other large shareholders boosted their stake, including the

Merieux family and Canada's pension fund PSP Investments, Ceva

CEO Marc Prikazsky told Reuters.

The latest fundraising is part of a regular refinancing plan

organised by the company every four to five years.

"In five years we'll reshuffle the cards. Maybe we'll go

public," Prikazsky said.

"The company being much bigger and having more visibility on

the stock exchange could be a good option," the CEO added,

stressing that Ceva's aim was to become the world's leader in

animal health.

Ceva's competitors include U.S. companies Zoetis ( ZTS ) and

Merck Animal Health, and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim.

Other investors such as Singapore's state investment company

Temasek also renewed its commitment to Ceva while French

healthcare focused investment firm Archimed joined the group.

Based in southwestern France but operating in 47 countries,

Ceva reported revenue of 1.77 billion euros ($1.91 billion) in

2024.

The company was one of the several approached by the U.S.

government, which said it was looking at vaccination as one

option to contain a severe outbreak of the bird flu virus that

led to the culling of millions of birds and sent egg prices

soaring.

Ceva's bird flu vaccine is one of the two, along with

Boehringer Ingelheim's, picked by the French government for its

nationwide bird flu vaccination campaign.

($1 = 0.9249 euros)

($1 = 0.9258 euros)