Private Equity Investment in Women’s Health Practices

Overview

Driven by regulatory efforts, market forces, and major structural changes, growth and consolidation has dominated U.S. health care for many years. 

From hospital systems and insurance providers to medical practices and specialty clinics, all corners of the health care market are experiencing investment and buyouts, with more and more large superregional and national platforms being established. Women’s health was one of the first areas to receive attention as part of this movement but only in the past few years has it been seeing significant new investment growth. 

Ares Private Equity partnered with Unified Women’s Health to create the first women’s health platform in 2013, and during the past few years, the market has added several additional investors. Most recently, WomanCarePC and Women’s HealthFirst leveraged PGP’s M&A Advisory services to help them explore private equity, ultimately coming together as founding practices of Nova Women’s Health Partners, a new platform by Webster Equity Partners.

With the Nova platform coming into the fold, private equity groups have concluded 9 large investments in women’s health platforms around the country. Women’s Health practices share many of the same conditions as other physician specialties experiencing growth and successful waves of consolidation. There is significant service fragmentation, combined with an imbalance between provider supply and patient demand. Private equity buyers are eager to acquire the consistent cash flow and growth potential that women’s health practices can provide. During a time of uncertain investment returns, the Physician Growth Partners team expects this interest to continue to grow. 

Our team has successfully guided women’s health practices through the private equity process. There are several steps that we take to ensure successful outcomes for our clients, including but not limited to:

• Develop the appropriate financial modeling to position maximized cash flow and “credit” for ongoing initiatives that are driving growth
• Determine the right mix of potential buyers (including both strategic acquirers and private equity groups) and implement a strategy to reach them
• Managing buyer marketing, bid solicitation, and negotiation
• Position the client to meet relevant potential buyers with strong offers that address cultural fit, strategy, and alignment
• Manage the transaction process to maximize leverage with potential buyers
• Negotiate key economic and structural deal terms, leveraging PGP experience within the women’s health specialty
• Facilitate all due-diligence pre-closing to ensure a seamless process that does not take away from the day-to-day business while ensuring the highest probability for a successful close
• Maximize financial results for shareholders while maintaining clinical autonomy