Étoile Secours

The group, owned by Christian Philippon, was started in 1989 after an initial acquisition, and it developed through multiple external growth operations. Today it has a turnover of 30 million euros. By opening up its capital for the first time, the regional group wants to extend its development and consolidate its organisation, under the Étoile Secours entity. Credit Mutuel Equity and Océan Participations are investing 5.5 million euros with the management.

The activity of Étoile Secours is currently concentrated around 2 poles : medical transport of the sick and injured, which is the longstanding activity of the company, and funeral services, a complimentary activity. The group carries out its services in the Charente-Maritime department, where it is the principle operator, and in the neighbouring departments of Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Indre and Indre-et-Loire.

The story began in 1989, when at the age of 28 Christian Philippon bought his first ambulance company. At the beginning of the 2000s, he began to significantly extend his company’s regional coverage. Then year after year, more acquisitions were made, and multiple partnerships, allowing Étoile Secours to occupy its current, substantial role in the medical services sector on the Atlantic coast.

In order to cater closely to the clients’ expectations regarding reactivity and quality of service - patients with chronic disorders and occasional users - and the health structures, Christian Philippon built a network of local agencies enabling him to offer a well-adapted service of transport and care.

Thanks to this operation the director, supported by his long-standing partners and his younger key executives, intends harmonising the management of the group and structuring it in order to pursue his development strategy, including the reinforcement of its geographical presence and the development of new, added value services.

“I had reached the limit of what I was able to do alone. Welcoming Crédit Mutuel Equity as investors, is going to allow us on the one hand to move up to a higher level and consolidate our company’s image with our partners, whether they be suppliers or clients, and on the other hand enlarge the network of skills in order to pursue our regional development under the new structure Étoile Secours” explained Christian Philippon.

“We were won over by the competence and agility of Christian Philippon, a self-taught business leader with solid business management and development skills. Furthermore we appreciated the company’s advantageous position within a complex and changing ecosystem as well as the competitiveness of its services. This has been and will continue to be helped by a health sector which is structurally profitable (age structure of the population, long-term illnesses, hospital asset turnover ratio, regional reorganisation of care services …) with obvious growth levers at their disposal” explain Fanny Hibon and Anthony Hillion, Investment Directors at Credit Mutuel Equity.

“We have been working with Christian Philippon for several years now. Thanks to his dynamism, his entrepreneurship and his experienced team, he has succeeded in creating and developing a group which is a major player in this market. We liked the development project and we sincerely believe in the agility of the group in this sector which is in perpetual movement. Océan Participations is therefore very proud to support Étoile Secours, a fine regional company” added Pierrick Charrot, investment manager at Océan Participations.

Contact us