Clayton Dubilier & Rice said Thursday it has agreed to acquire, though its managed funds, fast-growing wound care company Healogics from fellow private equity firms Metalmark Capital and Scale Venture Partners for $910 million.
Jacksonville-based Healogics, which provides therapies for skin and pressure ulcers linked to diabetes and other conditions, reported sales of $300 million in 2013. The company employs 2,000 workers, treated more than 215,000 patients last year and, according to a company press release, operates outpatient wound care centers in about 600 U.S. hospitals—one-third of such in the country. Named one of the health care industry’s 40 fastest-growing companies in 2013 by Modern Healthcare, Healogics operates Sechrist Industries Inc., a global manufacturer of hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers used by hospitals for advanced wound care.
“Healogics is the clear market leader in hospital outpatient wound care services which is a large, underserved market with sustainable long-term growth,” CD&R partner Kenneth Giuriceo said in a news release announcing the acquisition. For his part, Healogics president and CEO Jeff Nelson, who will continue to lead the company, said in a news release,“CD&R is well-known as a business builder, and has deep experience in closely related health care models.”
The deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, is one of many recent mergers and acquisitions in the health care and pharmaceutical industries.
CDR is being represented in the matter by a Debevoise & Plimpton team led by Margaret “Peggy” Andrews Davenport, the cochair of the firm’s corporate department and former cochair of its private equity group. The other Debevoise lawyers working on the matter include partners David Brittenham, Jonathan Lewis and David Schnabel. Debevoise frequently serves as the private equity firm’s outside counsel, advising most recently on its acquisition earlier this month of European industrial packaging company Mauser Group for $1.2 billion euros ($1.7 billion) and its purchase in February of Ashland Water Technologies for $1.8 billion.
Healogics and Metalmark, meanwhile, turned to Ropes & Gray as their outside counsel on the transaction. The Ropes team includes private equity partner Anthony Norris, healthcare partner Tim McCrystal and finance partner Steven Rutkovsky. Ropes associates Rorie Norton (finance), Adam Shane (private equity) and Mark Xiang (finance) are also working on the deal. Norris said no other firms acted as outside counsel on the sellers’ side of the transaction.
