NEW CANAAN, CT – January 19, 2021 – The physician medical groupM&A market accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2020, with 60 publicly announced transactions, compared with 52 acquisitions in the third quarter, according to data from HealthCareMandA.com. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, activity decreased by 5%. Still, the fourth quarter of 2020 was the most robust for M&A in the physician medical group sector for the year.
Few transactions in this sector disclose prices, but disclosed dollar volume rose to more than $1.9 billion, compared with the $896 million disclosed in the third quarter. The large quarterly total was the result of Aspen Dental Management, Inc.’s $1.1 billion acquisition of ClearChoice Management Services, a leading dental services organization, from Sun Capital Partners, Inc. Aspen Dental Management, Inc. is backed by two private equity firms: Ares Private Equity Group and Leonard Green & Partners L.P.
Sun Capital Partners was also involved in the second largest deal physician deal of the quarter, this time as the buyer. The private equity firm purchased Miami Beach Medical Group, the second-largest primary care provider to Medicare Advantage plan members in South Florida, from Gauge Capital, LLC, for $500 million.
Private equity firms and their portfolio companies continue to be the driving force behind much of the sector’s M&A activity, accounting for 73% of the deals announced in the fourth quarter. AEG Vision, a portfolio company of Riata Capital Group, was the most active buyer, with three announced deals, but several companies announced at least two deals, including Total Vision (a portfolio company of Bregal Partners), Retina Consultants of America (backed by Webster Equity Partners) and many more.
“The coronavirus pandemic renewed focus on the healthcare market in general, but the Physician Medical Group sector is attracting investors from outside the healthcare market,” commented Lisa E. Phillips, editor of The Health Care M&A Report, which publishes the data. “The M&A momentum from the fourth quarter has carried over into 2021 and we could see a record year for physician practice deals.”
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 seniors housing M&A markets.
