Midwest Vision Partners, a portfolio company of Alpine Investors, has formed two new partnerships with the Cleveland Eye Clinic and the Michigan Eye Institute.
Midwest Vision Partners (MVP) was formed as an ophthalmology platform by Alpine in June 2019 through the acquisitions of Ohio-based eye care business, Northeast Ohio Eye Surgeons and its subsidiary Ohio Eye Care Consultants. MVP is led by CEO Joseph Giles and is headquartered in Chicago.
The partnerships with the Cleveland Eye Clinic and the Michigan Eye Institute expands MVP’s eye care network to 4 practices and 45 physicians that provide medical and surgical eye care services at 25 locations across Michigan and Ohio.
Cleveland Eye Clinic, founded in 1943, is led by Dr. Bill Wiley and Dr. Shamik Bafna and has 130 support staff across 13 locations. “We are excited to be partnering with Midwest Vision Partners,” said Dr. Wiley. “Their patient and people-first approach align well with our values and will allow us to provide great care to more patients in Cleveland.”
Michigan Eye Institute, founded in 1991, is led by Dr. Gary Keoleian, Dr. Jeffrey Diskin and Dr. David Diskin and has 110 support staff across 6 locations.
Tree Line Capital Partners was the lead arranger and administrative agent on a credit facility to back MVP’s transactions with the Cleveland Eye Clinic and the Michigan Eye Institute. CVC Credit Partners and City National Bank also provided financing for the transaction.
“We appreciate Tree Line’s meaningful incremental commitment to MVP and leadership in growing the credit facility,” said Adam Jones of Alpine. “We chose to work with Tree Line due to their demonstrated buy and build track record in the lower middle market.”
Tree Line Capital Partners provides first lien term loans, unitranche term loans and equity co-investments to North America-based lower middle market companies that have EBITDA from $3 million to $30 million and transaction sizes up to $150 million. The Tree Line team has extensive direct lending experience across multiple economic cycles and has generated significant repeat investment opportunities from private equity sponsors.
“We’re excited about the recent add-ons at MVP which have enabled the platform to become a leader in its key geographies,” said Frank Cupido, a partner at Tree Line. “This transaction is a great example of our abilities to manage growing debt facilities as borrowers mature.”
Tree Line currently manages $1.3 billion of investable capital and has completed over 90 transactions for acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancings, expansion projects and other growth capital needs. Tree Line is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in New York and New Orleans.
Alpine invests in control buyouts, majority recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of recurring revenue software and services businesses, with enterprise values from $5 million to $400 million and EBITDA of $1 million to $40 million. In November 2019, the firm held a hard cap close of Alpine Investors VII LP with $1 billion in limited partner capital commitments. The new fund was oversubscribed and handily beat its original target of $750 million. Alpine was founded in 2001 and is based in San Francisco.
Alpine and MVP continue to seek additional add-on acquisitions of other eye care providers in Ohio and the broader Midwest.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | January 21, 2020
