The home health and hospice M&A market remained steady in the second quarter of 2019, with 25 publicly announced transactions compared with 24 acquisitions in the first quarter, according to data from HealthCareMandA.com. Compared with the second quarter of 2018, home health and hospice M&A activity increased by 39%, when just 21 acquisitions were announced. Very few of the transactions disclosed prices, but the total for the second quarter of 2019 was $218.4 million. In the second quarter of 2018, the total dollar value based on disclosed prices was $1.4 billion, largely as a result of the $1.4 billion acquisition of Curo Health Services by a consortium of three buyers.
Of the 25 transactions announced in the second quarter, 32% were announced by private equity firms or their platform companies. AccentCare, Inc., a portfolio company of Oak Hill Capital Partners, announced two of these acquisitions.
“Private equity firms and their portfolio companies continue to be very active in expanding their home health and hospice businesses. Expenditures on home health and hospice are the fastest growing in the health care economy, and PE firms want to capture some of that growth,” commented Lisa Phillips, editor of The Health Care M&A Report, which publishes the data.
The most prolific buyer in the second quarter was The Ensign Group and its affiliates, with three separate acquisitions, followed by Nova Leap Health Corp. with two transactions, one in Canada and one in the United States. In addition, three not-for-profits announced acquisitions. Based on disclosed prices, the purchase of Alacare Home Health & Hospice by Encompass Health Corp. for $217.5 million was the largest deal in the second quarter. However, Advent International’s acquisition of AccentCare Inc. most likely came with a higher price based on the target company’s estimated 2019 revenues of $950 million.
All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report for all 13 sectors of health care, which is part of the HealthCareMandA.com investment research source. For information, or to order the report, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates is celebrating more than 70 years of delivering exclusive M&A intelligence to its sophisticated audience of seniors housing and healthcare investors. The company was established in 1948 and has headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company publishes research reports and newsletters and maintains databases on the healthcare and senior housing M&A markets.
