EQS-News: H.I.G. Capital Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Vitaly Group through its Portfolio Company Avanta Salud

LONDON, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- H.I.G. Capital ("H.I.G."), a leading global alternative investment firm with $74 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce that its portfolio company Avanta Salud Integral ("Avanta") has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vitaly Group ("Vitaly"), one of the leading occupational health and safety ("OHS") services providers in Iberia. Vitaly's co-founders and co-CEOs, Jesús Nieto and Andrés López, will reinvest alongside H.I.G., Avanta's founder Josep Pla, and current minority investor MCH Private Equity, demonstrating the strong conviction of all shareholders in the combined platform.

The acquisition brings together two highly complementary businesses. Avanta and Vitaly each provide Technical Prevention, Occupational Medicine, training, and elective health services to a predominantly SME customer base across Spain. The combined group will serve more than 240,000 clients covering approximately 4 million protected workers, operating from 505 centres with approximately 5,500 employees.

Beyond Spain, the combined group is well positioned to accelerate international expansion. Vitaly's advanced AI capabilities, embedded across back office workflows, occupational health surveillance, and elective digital services, will serve as a further differentiator and integration enabler across the enlarged platform.

Rohin Jain, Managing Director at H.I.G. Middle Market Europe, commented, "The acquisition of Vitaly is a landmark transaction for Avanta and for H.I.G. in Europe. We are combining the two most dynamic and operationally sophisticated OHS businesses in Iberia to create a platform of genuine continental scale. The strategic rationale is compelling: complementary service models, significant synergies, and a combined leadership team with decades of growth and integration experience. We are building a market leader in a resilient, highly regulated sector with significant organic growth and an international expansion runway. This is exactly the kind of transformative value creation opportunity we look for."

Josep Pla, Founder of Avanta, added, "When I founded Avanta, our ambition was always to build the leading workplace health platform in Europe. The combination with Vitaly is one of the most important steps we have taken towards that goal. Jesús and Andrés have built something exceptional at Vitaly, a business that shares our values, our commitment to quality, and our drive for operational excellence. I am proud that all three of us will be reinvesting heavily in the combined business because we genuinely believe the best years are still ahead of us."

Jesús Nieto and Andrés López, co-founders and co-CEOs of Vitaly, said, "We have spent 25 years building Vitaly into one of the most respected names in occupational health in Spain, and we have been deliberate and patient in selecting the right partner for the next chapter. From the moment we met Josep and the H.I.G. team, it was clear that this combination was special: two businesses built on the same principles, with the same relentless focus on quality and technology."

About Avanta Salud

Headquartered in Spain, Avanta is a leading provider of OHS services. Avanta's core business is centred on mandatory, legally required occupational health services, including health surveillance, technical prevention, risk engineering, training, and compliance consulting. These services are critical for employers across all sectors in meeting stringent workplace health and safety obligations under Spanish and EU law. In addition to its core offering, Avanta provides elective, ROI-driven employee health services, including mental health support, absenteeism management, in-company medical services, and other preventive care interventions. These offerings are increasingly adopted by employers seeking to reduce lost productivity, enhance employee well-being, and differentiate themselves in a competitive labour market. For more information, visit avantagrupo.com.

About Vitaly Group

Headquartered in Badajoz, Spain, Vitaly is a leading provider of OHS services in Iberia. Vitaly was created in 2022 through the merger of Grupo Preving and Cualtis, and today serves approximately 140,000 clients, covering 2.5 million protected workers through a national network of 387 centres and 147 mobile units. Vitaly employs approximately 3,700 professionals. For more information, visit vitaly.es.

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global alternative investment firm with $74 billion of capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Stamford in the United States, as well as international affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, and Hong Kong, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to middle market companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:

• H.I.G.'s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
• H.I.G.'s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche, and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. also manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
• H.I.G.'s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
• H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The Firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $53 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at hig.com.

*Based on total capital raised by H.I.G. Capital and its affiliates.

Contact:

Rohin Jain Managing Director rjain@hig.com

H.I.G. Capital 10 Grosvenor Street 2nd Floor London W1K 4QB United Kingdom P: +44 (0) 207 318 5700 hig.com

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