Waud Capital Partners has formed United Vision Partners (UVP) to pursue acquisitions in the consumer eye care market. The new holding company has also made its first acquisition with the buy of Minnesota Eye Consultants (MEC). As part of the transaction, all of MEC’s physician shareholders will maintain their current roles with the group and retain ownership through United Vision.
MEC provides surgical and non-surgical eye care services through a network of six offices, including four which operate ophthalmology-focused ambulatory surgery centers. The group offers comprehensive eye care services, including treatment for cataracts, corneal disease, refractive surgery, glaucoma, oculoplastics and medical optometry. MEC has a staff of 25 ophthalmologists and optometrists and was founded in 1989 by Dr. Richard Lindstrom. The company is headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington (www.mneye.com).
“After establishing and building a tremendous organization over the last 25 years, we chose to partner with Waud Capital following an extremely selective process,” said Dr. Lindstrom. “The team at Waud Capital shares our commitment to clinical excellence, and we believe their experience successfully supporting leading physician practices is truly unique. This partnership provides us the operating resources and growth capital to continue our commitment to excellence in an evolving healthcare market, in addition to positioning our business for rapid growth and differentiation.”
“Our partnership with MEC is the result of carefully studying the vision market over the last three years and identifying the leading providers of care across the US,” said Chris Graber, Principal with Waud Capital. “Early in our efforts, it became clear that Minnesota Eye Consultants was one of the industry’s leaders, with a national reputation for quality of care. We’re thrilled to partner with Dr. Lindstrom and the team at MEC and believe that their commitment to clinical leadership and patient experience provide an extraordinary foundation for growth.”
“Our partnership with Minnesota Eye Consultants exemplifies Waud’s approach to identifying differentiated organizations in targeted sectors and partnering with industry leaders in large, fragmented markets,” said David Neighbours, a Partner at Waud Capital. “This is our first investment out of our fourth institutional fund and the investment marks our continued dedication to supporting promising physician practices in the ambulatory care market.”
Waud Capital makes investments from $50 million to $100 million in middle-market companies with enterprise values from $50 million to $250 million that operate in the healthcare services and business and technology services sectors. Since its founding in 1993, Waud Capital has made more than 195 investments, including platform companies and add-on acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in Chicago (www.waudcapital.com).
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | February 9, 2017
