(Bloomberg) -- Zur Rose Group AG, the Swiss online pharmacy, is exploring strategic options including a possible sale, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The Frauenfeld-based company has been working with advisers to look at alternatives ranging from a take-private to a private investment in public equity, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. It has held talks in recent months with potential suitors including US buyout firms KKR & Co. and Hellman & Friedman, the people said.

Shares of Zur Rose briefly jumped into positive territory, surging as much as 7.7%, before turning negative again. They were down 1.1% at 2:25 p.m. Monday in Zurich, giving the company a market value of about 685 million Swiss francs ($715 million), as sentiment was hurt by several research analysts cutting their target prices earlier in the day.

Rival online pharmacy Shop Apotheke Europe NV also rallied, rising as much as 4.7% in Frankfurt before reversing the gains.

Zur Rose, the owner of sites including DocMorris, could also pursue other options to improve its balance sheet, the people said. A deal isn’t expected in the near future given current valuation levels and the state of the credit market, which makes it difficult for private equity firms to finance buyouts, the people said. 

Representatives for Zur Rose, H&F and KKR declined to comment.

Zur Rose, which gets most of its revenue from Germany and Switzerland, was founded in 1993 by a group of doctors and went public in 2017. The unprofitable company’s market capitalization soared during the coronavirus pandemic, reaching nearly 5.4 billion francs at one point. It runs online pharmacies, has a medical wholesale business in Switzerland and also operates a marketplace in southern Europe for consumer health and beauty products. 

Last week, Zur Rose released guidance that briefly gave a boost to its battered share price. The company forecast it will break even in 2023 on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and won’t need additional operating capital. 

Some analysts have also bet that Zur Rose will get a boost from the accelerated rollout of electronic prescriptions in Germany. The company currently has more than 11 million active customers across its core European markets, according to a release this month. 

Zur Rose is potentially attractive to private equity firms as it caters to the digitization of health care systems and could be expanded into new markets through acquisitions. In 2019, Zur Rose boosted its market share in Germany by acquiring the e-commerce operations of Medpex, the country’s third-largest online pharmacy. 

There’s even been speculation that Zur Rose could be attractive for tech companies like Amazon.com Inc. that have been expanding into health care. 

(Updates with share movement from third paragraph.)

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