Clearlake runs secondaries deal for Symplr, TPG names Todd Sisitsky president

Happy Friday!

If any healthcare readers out there are heading to the Healthcare Innovation and Investment conference in Chicago next week, hit me up, I’ll be there!

Saga: A big healthcare technology company that I’ve written about on more than a few occasions is now in the midst of a single-asset secondaries deal, writes my colleague Chris Witkowsky. I’m talking about the Clearlake Capital-backed healthcare governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software giant, Symplr.

The secondaries process comes after Symplr returned to market earlier this year (after a 2020 process was shelved), with Evercore, Goldman Sachs and William Blair engaged to explore transactions including a stake sale, PE Hub wrote in June. The process aimed to command a valuation of $4 billion-plus, or more than 20x EBITDA, sources told me at the time.

Ultimately, Charlesbank made a minority investment in Symplr in a deal that valued the company in the range of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion, a source said.

Now, Clearlake is on track to soon move Symplr out of Clearlake’s Fund V and into a continuation pool that will give Clearlake more time to manage the business. The deal could total $1.25 billion, or up to $1.4 billion or $1.5 billion, depending on demand, Chris writes. As with some other recent single-asset deals, the minority deal helped set the valuation of the secondaries transaction, one source said.

Read Chris’s full report for all the deets.

The other major consolidator in healthcare GRC, which like Symplr has been very aggressive on the M&A front, is RLDatix. In recent big bets, RLDatix, backed by TA Associates and Five Arrows Capital, grew its workforce management capabilities through a deal for Hg’s Allocate Software. Ahead of that, the sale process was expected to produce a deal value in the $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion range.

What’s the ultimate endgame (exit plan) for consolidators like Symplr and RLDatix as they keep getting bigger and bigger? With a playbook largely driven by M&A growth, will the public markets ultimately be receptive down the line?

Big debut: Here’s one company getting public reception. It was less than a year ago that an investor group including Permira, Warburg Pincus, among others, joined WCAS as an investor in Clearwater Analytics, a SaaS provider of automated investment accounting and analytics. The company this morning joined the public markets, pricing above its anticipated range at $18 a share, raising $540 million.

The 2020 process leading to the deal for Clearwater, Reuters wrote, was anticipated to command an around $2 billion valuation. PE Hub wrote that the process led to conversations with 25-plus sponsors, making it tough to compete. For WCAS, Clearwater’s [transaction value] at the time of the recap was done at over 3x its money, PE Hub wrote earlier this year.

Movin’ up: TPG announced a series of notable promotions as it reportedly readies for an IPO.

That includes the appointment of veteran healthcare investor Todd B. Sisitsky as president of the firm. Sisitsky, who joined TPG in 2003, will remain co-managing partner of TPG Capital and co-head of the platform’s healthcare investing efforts.

Also moving up the ranks, partners Nehal Raj and Jeff Rhodes have been promoted to co-managing partners of TPG Capital, while partner David Trujillo is promoted to co-managing partner of TPG Growth.

Read PE Hub’s brief on the news.

That’s it for me! Have a great weekend everybody, and as always, write to me at springle@buyoutsinsider.com with any feedback, tips or just to say hello!