EP2C acquires Cabinet Russier: controlled-environment engineering joins Life Sciences

The acquirer: EP2C Group, technical assistance for major infrastructure projects

Based in Balma, on the outskirts of Toulouse, EP2C is a group specialising in technical assistance for major infrastructure projects worldwide, organised into three divisions — EP2C Energy, founded in 2014, EP2C Life Sciences, created in 2022, and EP2C Nucléaire, launched in 2023. The unlisted group — backed by iXO Private Equity as a minority shareholder — generated EUR 85m of revenue in 2024 with 900 employees, more than 300 new assignments a year and a presence in around fifty countries, on a published growth path of more than 30% a year since 2014. Its strategy combines geographical expansion — from Singapore to Brazil — with deeper specialisation through successive acquisitions: Pharmconcept in 2023, then Cabinet Russier — the deal on this page, announced on 5 May 2025, which gives the Life Sciences division its engineering design capability — ahead of Oakridge, the nuclear building block, at the end of the year.

The seller: Cabinet Russier, a cleanroom and HVAC engineering consultancy

Based in Dommartin, north-west of Lyon, with an office in the Paris region, Cabinet Russier is an industrial engineering consultancy founded in 1997 in the orbit of Lyon's pharmaceutical industry — set up as Cabinet Laval Conseils by a former head of capital projects at Sanofi Pasteur, taken over in 2004 by Alain Russier, and specialising in air handling for controlled-environment areas, since extended to multi-discipline building services, industrial utilities — steam, vacuum, purified and ultrapure water, compressed air, nitrogen — and process equipment, up to turnkey projects. Its differentiating strength is officially documented: a team of 13 engineers and staff and revenue of nearly EUR 1.5m on the register of OPQIBI (the French qualification body for engineering consultancies) — including the qualification for air-handling design in controlled-environment premises, rare in the profession — a patent filed in 2011 for Clean Industry (Industrie Propre), and five sectors served: pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, chemicals and commercial buildings with specific constraints. Its governance illustrates a sequenced, published transfer: EP2C Group became the company's président (its legal chair) in February 2025 according to the statutory notices, with the public announcement of the deal following on 5 May — and the firm continues to trade under its own brand, its teams now appearing alongside EP2C Life Sciences at industry events.

Why this acquisition, and why this life sciences engineering target

For EP2C, the aim was to give depth to a young division: EP2C Life Sciences, created in 2022, provides healthcare manufacturers with technical assistance on their major projects — but life sciences have a technical core that few master: designing environments where contamination is counted in particles — cleanrooms, air handling, ultrapure utilities. “Supporting our clients with even greater efficiency and innovation”, says the acquirer's announcement: by bringing in Cabinet Russier, the group adds upstream engineering design to technical assistance — the work that draws the installation before projects build it — and rounds off, a few months before the Oakridge nuclear building block, its 2025 drive towards specialisation.

On the target side, Cabinet Russier concentrated in thirteen engineers what the investment thesis was looking for: the rare specialism — air handling for controlled-environment premises, recognised by an OPQIBI qualification that few firms hold; the founding legitimacy — a firm born in the orbit of Lyon's pharmaceutical industry, founded by a former Sanofi Pasteur capital projects manager; the technical depth — from multi-discipline building services to ultrapure utilities and process skids, up to the 2011 Clean Industry patent; and exactly the right size for an expert consultancy: nearly EUR 1.5m of documented activity on the official register, an office in the Paris region, five sectors served. For Alain Russier — who had himself taken over the firm in 2004 — joining a group of 900 employees offered the eponymous firm a natural next step: the brand retained, the teams integrated into a dedicated division, and the resources of a global group behind the expertise of a close-knit team of engineers.

Life sciences engineering, the bottleneck of pharmaceutical reshoring

This deal should be read in the context of the race for skills in the healthcare industry: pharmaceutical reshoring and the growth of biomanufacturing are multiplying plant, production-suite and laboratory projects in France — and each of them runs into the same bottleneck, the engineering of controlled environments: cleanrooms, air handling, ultrapure utilities, regulatory qualifications. Firms with this know-how are rare, small and in high demand — and technical assistance and engineering groups are acquiring them one after another, because in knowledge businesses external growth is first and foremost an acquisition of skills: you do not buy market share, you buy qualified engineers and their references.

The deal is domestic in scope and typical of a model: from Balma to Dommartin, a group of 900 employees present in around fifty countries brings in a firm of 13 engineers — proof that size does not make the target, specialisation does. The transfer has its own story: Alain Russier, who took over the firm in 2004, hands it on twenty years later to a group that keeps its brand and its teams — the buyer turned seller, coming full circle — with governance passing to EP2C Group in a published sequence, from the chairmanship in February to the announcement on 5 May. And the group's 2025 sets out a policy: Cabinet Russier in the spring for Life Sciences, Oakridge in December for nuclear — two engineering building blocks in one year, with specialisation as the course.

Collaboration Capital's added value on this buy-side acquisition

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. Acquiring a specialist engineering consultancy plays out in four stages — and in knowledge businesses, where the assets go home every evening, each stage is measured in people as much as in figures.