Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP) has sold Caring Brands International to Wellspring Capital.
According to LLCP, Caring Brands is one of the largest franchisors of home healthcare services globally and the only franchisor offering the full continuum of care at home, including skilled nursing, assistance with daily living activities, and end-of-life hospice care.
Caring Brands operates under three brands: Interim HealthCare (US and Saudi Arabia); Bluebird Care (UK and Ireland); and Just Better Care (Australia). In total, the three brands have over 585 locations operated by more than 290 franchise owners that produce $1.3 billion of annual systemwide sales. Caring Brands, led by CEO Jennifer Sheets, is headquartered near Fort Lauderdale in Sunrise, Florida.
Caring Brands was formed in 2012 by The Halifax Group to acquire Florida-based Interim HealthCare (November 2012), UK-based Bluebird Care (September 2013) and Australia-based Just Better Care (October 2014). In September 2015, The Halifax Group sold Caring Brands to LLCP.
“It has been a true pleasure partnering with LLCP, my executive team and our franchisees to accelerate Caring Brands’ growth,” said Ms. Sheets. “LLCP’s incredible expertise in both franchising and healthcare made them an invaluable partner to our Company and we benefited greatly from their strategic direction. LLCP shares our philosophy that providing franchisees incredible support is paramount to the success of any franchisor.”
According to a source familiar with this transaction, LLCP realized more than 3x its invested capital on the sale of Caring Brands to Wellspring.
“The Caring Brands management team, led by Jennifer Sheets, has built an incredible business and the investment has been extremely successful for LLCP and Caring Brands’ stakeholders,” said Matthew Frankel, a managing partner of LLCP. “Since investing in 2015, we have completed numerous add-on acquisitions (both domestic and abroad), driven the increased adoption of Caring Brands’ higher acuity service lines (especially hospice and home health), and added a company-owned branch strategy to further accelerate growth. Caring Brands is exceptionally positioned to continue executing on its growth plan and we wish the management team, franchisees and Wellspring further success.”
Since its founding in 1984 by Arthur Levine and Lauren Leichtman, LLCP has managed $12.7 billion of institutional capital across 15 investment funds and has invested in over 90 portfolio companies. LLCP currently has $9 billion of assets under management with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Charlotte, Miami, London, Stockholm and The Hague.
The sale of Caring Brands is LLCP’s eighth recent exit, following FlexXray (July 2021), Trinity Consultants (June 2021), Nothing Bundt Cakes (May 2021), ZorgDomein (January 2021), Jonathan Engineered Solutions (January 2021), Futurewhiz (December 2020), and Pacific Handy Cutter (December 2020).
In September 2021, LLCP closed its latest fund, LLCP Lower Middle Market Fund III LP (LMM III), with total capital commitments of $1.38 billion. The new fund was oversubscribed and closed at its increased hard cap.
New York City-based Wellspring was founded in 1995 and has raised more than $4 billion of capital through six private equity funds. Its latest fund, Wellspring Capital Partners VI LP, closed at its hard cap of $1.4 billion in January 2018.
Lincoln International was the financial advisor to Caring Brands on this transaction.
© 2021 Private Equity Professional | October 28, 2021
