Wellspring Capital Management has acquired Great Lakes Caring Home Health & Hospice (Great Lakes Caring), a provider of in-home post-acute health services, from Pouschine Cook Capital Management which first invested in the company in 2007.
“Great Lakes Caring is a unique opportunity to invest in a platform with documented industry leading quality scores as well as a strong and established brand. William Deary and Great Lakes Caring’s world-class management team have a proven track record, and we are excited to collaborate with them to further enhance the value of the business,” said William Dawson Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Wellspring.
Great Lakes Caring offers a range of services including hospice, home health, home medical equipment, palliative care and private duty. The company employs more than 1,200 health care professionals in 20 offices that provide daily services to more than 7,000 patients across Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Great Lakes Caring was founded in 1994 by Cherilyn Deary and is based west of Detroit in Jackson, MI (www.greatlakescaring.com).
“Great Lakes Caring is well positioned in an attractive market where we expect demographic trends to result in continued growth,” said Alexander Carles, a Managing Partner of Wellspring. “This growth will continue to be driven by the company’s longstanding relationships with physicians, facilities and health systems, its quintessential commitment to superior quality and innovative programs, its scalable infrastructure enabled by next generation technology and considerable experience integrating businesses. We believe that these and other core strengths will serve Great Lakes Caring very well as we pursue a range of value-building initiatives, including strategic acquisitions.”
William Deary, CEO of Great Lakes Caring, and his management team will continue to lead the company and have maintained a significant equity stake in the company.
“The home health and hospice industry is poised for consolidation, and Great Lakes Caring will actively participate in this industry consolidation as we evaluate acquisition opportunities and execute on our internal initiatives. Wellspring believes we are an effective platform for both organic and acquisition growth, and has a long track record of supporting service-oriented companies by providing the operational and financial resources they need to build their businesses,” said Mr. Deary.
Wellspring Capital Management is a middle-market private equity firm that manages more than $3 billion of private equity capital. The firm was founded in 1995 and is based in New York (www.wellspringcapital.com).
Alvarez & Marsal Transaction Advisory Group provided finance, accounting and tax advice. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison served as transaction counsel and Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff served as regulatory counsel.
The seller of Great Lakes Caring, Pouschine Cook Capital Management, invests from $5 million to $25 million in companies with $20 million to $250 million in revenue and at least $5 million of EBITDA that have a leading position in their niche or industry and significant growth opportunities. The firm is based in New York (www.pouschinecook.com).
© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 5-14-14
