Happy Friday!
On hold: Several healthcare-related deals have been put on hold in recent weeks for various reasons, including such assets not hitting sellers’ price expectations. PE Hub chief Sarah Pringle has covered several situations where auctions have been pulled.
One of the deals was Premier Inc, a group purchasing organization, which was in market and received preliminary indications of interest from parties including large buyout funds.
The process is on hold as Premier over the next six months determines which health system shareholders will remain investors and which will exit in a potential deal, Pringle wrote. Check out here story here on PE Hub.
Meanwhile, Webster Equity Partners pulled opioid-treatment company BayMark Health Services from the market after bids failed to meet price expectations. Webster started working with Goldman Sachs on the deal about a year ago and the formal process kicked off in the fall, Pringle wrote. Check it out here.
Finally, BBH Capital Partners called off the auction for American Physician Partners late last year after politicians raised the alarm about surprise medical billing, which distracted potential suitors, Pringle wrote. The unexpected regulatory concerns caused pricing talk to be paired back significantly, the story said. Check it out here.
Each of these seem unique situations and not necessarily indicative of a broader trend of deals not making it through auctions. But is there more to this story? What are you seeing? Hit me up at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com.
And …
Sticking with the theme of pulled deals, I spoke with a secondary professional the other day who said they were surprised by the number of deals pulled off the market last year. In secondaries, portfolio sales will get pulled when sellers don’t get the price they want. In some cases, sellers bring portfolios of fund stakes to market simply to test pricing, which can be frustrating to the advisers helping them shop their deals. Each year, some number of portfolio sales or GP-led processes won’t finalize for various reasons, but I had not picked up on a rash of pulled deals last year. Have you seen that? Let me know.
New fund: As firms look to spend their growing capital pools in new areas of high return, growth investing into less mature companies has become increasingly mainstream. One of those growthy areas is life sciences, which seems to be on many GPs’ lips these days. KKR and Bain Capital established in-house life sciences expertise, Financial Times reported last year. Now Blackstone Group revealed it has collected about $3.44 billion for its debut life sciences fund. That fund is capped at $4.58 billion, writes Justin Mitchell. Check it out here.
Top Scoops
JLL Partners is seeking a buyer for American Dental Partners about eight years after taking the dental practice management company private, writes Sarah Pringle on PE Hub. Check it out.
Michelle McKinnon, a portfolio manager in alternative investments at Honeywell’s corporate pension, last year joined the alternatives portfolio at Loews Corp’s pension fund, I wrote on Buyouts. Check it out.
That’s it! Have a great weekend! Hit me up as always with that good Drama at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com, on Twitter or find me on LinkedIn.
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