Shore Capital Partners has completed the acquisitions of Oak View Animal Hospital, Patton Chapel Animal Clinic, and Williams Animal Hospital to form Southern Veterinary Partners (SVP), a new platform investment.
With the close of these acquisitions and the formation of the Southern Veterinary Partners, the company is now a provider of general practice veterinary services to companion animals. Services include vaccinations, surgery, wellness exams, oncology, ophthalmology, allergy treatment and dermatology. SVP is headquartered in Birmingham, AL (www.oakviewah.com) (www.pattonchapelac.com), (www.thewilliamsanimalclinic.com).
Southern Veterinary Partners will execute a roll-up of animal hospitals in the Southeast. To pursue this goal, Shore has partnered with Dr. Jay Price, a veterinarian and the owner of Oak View, Patton Chapel and Williams, to be CEO of the platform. Dr. Price is an entrepreneurial veterinarian who has a track record of successfully acquiring and selling animal hospitals. He received his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Auburn University.
“We are thrilled about the partnership with Dr. Price and his hospitals and look forward to creating a leading regional network of animal hospitals throughout the Southeast,” said Mike Cooper, Founding Partner at Shore Capital and Chairman of Southern Veterinary Partners. “As part of our sector-focused investment approach, we’ve spent significant time studying the veterinary services industry and we are confident that the sector benefits from a number of attractive industry dynamics and is ripe for continued consolidation.”
According to Shore, the veterinary services segment is an attractive niche for investment for several reasons including: significant market fragmentation, advanced pet care treatment that is prolonging the lives of pets and increasing healthcare demand, favorable pet ownership projections, and the strong emotional bond between owners and their pets.
Shore’s plan to consolidate the industry includes investing in infrastructure to standardize operations and provide support to SVP’s current and future clinics including centralizing certain functions such as finance, accounting, human resources, IT, sales and marketing. Additionally, Shore Capital is supplementing the incumbent management team with several new executives, including a Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Development, and a board of directors to help enhance operations and execute an acquisition growth strategy.
Shore Capital Partners invests in lower middle market healthcare related companies that have $5 million to $50 million of revenue and $1 million to $5 million of EBITDA. Shore targets equity commitments of $10 million to $15 million per platform. Healthcare sectors of particular interest include behavioral health; healthcare staffing; infusion therapy; laboratory products & distribution; laboratory services; outpatient rehab therapy; urgent care; veterinary services; pharmaceutical services and contract research. Shore was founded in 2009 and is based in Chicago (www.shorecp.com).
The acquisitions of Oak View Animal Hospital, Patton Chapel Animal Clinic, and Williams Animal Hospital represent the first acquisitions for Shore Capital Partners Fund I, LP, a $112.5 million fund raised in May 2014 (Shore Capital Partners Closes Oversubscribed Fund I).
2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 11-3-14
