Physician Medical Group M&A Activity Slows in Q3:2018, According to Acquisition Data from HealthCareMandA.com
Acquisition activity in the physician medical group market slowed in the third quarter, coming off recent highs in the earlier quarters of 2018, according to data from HealthcareMandA.com.
NORWALK, Conn., Oct. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Physician medical group M&A activity dropped off in the third quarter of 2018, after hitting a recent record high in the first quarter, according to new data from HealthCareMandA.com. The number of physician medical group acquisitions in Q3:18 totaled 49, a 22% decline from the second quarter's activity of 63 transactions and a 26% decline from the first quarter's 66 transactions. Compared with the year-ago third quarter, M&A activity also decreased from 53 acquisitions. Only one transaction disclosed a price in the quarter, at $40.0 million, representing a nearly 100% drop from the second quarter's total spend of $12.2 billion (from four transactions).
The one acquisition to reveal a purchase price was a foreign-based deal involving pan-European healthcare provider Capio AB (based in Sweden) acquiring a Swedish specialty care provider focused on acute geriatrics, home healthcare and palliative care. Other notable transactions include Chicago Pacific Founders' purchase of SightMD, a multi-specialty ophthalmology platform with more than 50 physicians at 24 locations, and PhyMed Healthcare Group's acquisition of the 37-physican practice AAA Anesthesia Associates, part of the Lehigh Valley Health Network of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers in eastern Pennsylvania.
Dermatology practices were the most popular targets this quarter, which accounted for 14 of the 49 total acquisitions. Private equity firms or PE-backed physician medical groups were the buyers in all 14 dermatology deals for the quarter, with Chicago Pacific Founders, CI Capital Partners and QualDerm Partners being the most prolific.
Other popular specialty practices were ophthalmology/optometry (8), dental (7) and anesthesia (3). "Unprecedented interest from private equity firms and their portfolio companies has lifted physician medical group M&A to its highest level of activity since the frenzy of the late 1990s," said Lisa E. Phillips, editor of the Health Care M&A Report, which publishes the data. "They have especially targeted those practice areas with the least amount of managed care and hospital system interface, like dermatology, ophthalmology and dental practices."
All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report for all 13 sectors of health care, which is part of the HealthCareMandA.com. For more information, or to order the report, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates, Inc. was established in 1948 and has headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. Irving Levin Associates is celebrating 70 years of delivering exclusive M&A intelligence to its sophisticated audience of seniors housing and healthcare investors, and 2017 marked the third year in a row that the firm was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing media companies in the country. The company publishes research reports and newsletters, and maintains databases on the health care and senior housing M&A markets.
SOURCE HealthCareMandA.com
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