Bregal Partners has entered into an agreement with Dental Partners, a southeastern dental practice management platform, to pursue and acquire general dentistry-focused practices that have $5 to $25 million in revenue in the Southeast, Texas, and select Midwestern geographies.
Dental Partners is a general dentistry-focused dental practice management platform operating in Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, and Georgia. Dental Partners was founded by Dr. Todd Christie in 2011 with his acquisition of a single clinic in Tennessee, and the company has since grown to 20 clinics via acquisition. A dentist himself, Dr. Christie was previously founder, CEO, and majority owner of Christie Dental, a Florida-based practice management platform that he also built from the purchase of a single clinic and later successfully sold to American Dental Partners in 2009.
Bregal Partners has been working with Dr. Christie to evaluate potential investments in the dental sector over the last few years and the newly formed partnership is the culmination of their prior efforts together.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Todd, who has now twice built industry leading dental practice management platforms,” said Bregal Partners’ co-founder and Managing Partner Robert Bergmann. “Having acquired nearly 50 clinics in his career, he has a proven model that works across a wide range of practices: from those where the sellers wish to retire, to those with a young dentist group that wants support to accelerate growth. Critically, he and Dental Partners have a demonstrable track record of supporting acquired practices and driving strong growth post-acquisition.”
Dental Partners offers a complete range of routine, cosmetic and specialized dental health services including preventative care, whitening, crowns, veneers, dental implants, oral surgery, periodontics, endodontics, conscious and intravenous sedation, children’s dentistry and orthodontics. Dental Partners provides dentists and their team members leadership and support through continuing education, staffing, human resources, marketing, training, administration, accounting and information technology. The company is based in Melbourne, FL (www.dental-partners.com).
“I am thrilled to be partnering with Bregal Partners as Dental Partners looks to its next phase of growth. Bregal Partners brings substantial healthcare investment experience, including experience in the dental sector, which will help us expand our footprint and accelerate our growth. Having gotten to know the Bregal Partners team over the last few years, I am confident I have found a great partner,” said Dr. Christie.
Bregal Partners invests from $25 million to $75 million of equity in companies operating in the consumer, food & retail, energy services and healthcare industries. Target investments generate $15 million to $75 million or more of EBITDA. The firm has $500 million of committed capital funded by a sixth-generation family foundation with roots to 1841. Bregal is the private equity investment business of COFRA Holding AG, a European holding company for a privately-owned group of companies which also include C&A, a clothing retail organization, and Redevco, a real estate company owning a portfolio of over €7 billion across 700 properties in Europe. Bregal Partners is based in New York (www.bregalpartners.com).
2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 8-18-14