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DENVER and BAAR-ZUG, Switzerland—In the second major acquisition of an eyecare practice management group this year, the Switzerland-based Partners Group announced Monday morning that it has agreed to make a significant investment in EyeCare Partners LLC (ECP), a leading vertically integrated medical vision services provider in the U.S. FFL Partners announced separately that it was selling the stake it had held in EyeCare Partners since its initial investment in April 2015. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a person familiar with the the transaction told The Wall Street Journal the value of the deal (including debt assumption) was approximately $2.2 billion.

Officials of Partners Group and FFL Partners declined to provide details on the transaction.

Partners Group will become the majority shareholder, while ECP's management team and physician partners will continue to maintain a substantial equity stake in the 450-location practice group, according to the announcement.

VMAIL initially reported the agreement for the Partners Group acquisition on Monday morning.

Under FFL’s ownership, EyeCare Partner’s revenue grew at a compounded growth rate of 65 percent while the firm expanded its geographic footprint from 63 to more than 450 sites of service through over 60 strategic acquisitions.

Upon closing of the transaction, Partners Group will work closely with the ECP management team, led by chief executive officer Kelly McCrann, on “strategic initiatives to support ongoing organic and acquisitive growth,” the announcement noted.

Remy Hauser, a managing director, head of healthcare industry value creation at Partners Group, expressed optimism about the possibilities for growing EyeCare Partners’ footprint in the vision care market. “Our ‘thematic sourcing efforts over the past 24 months identified the medical vision segment as a highly attractive sub-sector within the health care sector, ripe for organic growth, expansion, and consolidation,” he noted in the announcement.

Todd Miller, a managing director and co-head private equity directs, Americas, at Partners Group, said the investment firm believes that ECP is “a market outperformer with strong momentum in a growing industry. We are excited to bring our operational experience with multi-site healthcare operations into partnership with ECP's talented management team and physician partners.” He also noted that the firm expects to work together with McCrann and the ECP team to “enhance patient care, expand geographically, and build local density, among other things."

Added, McCrann: “Partners Group has excellent operational support capabilities and an extremely successful track record of working with high-growth companies to build critical mass in the highly fragmented U.S. health care sector. We are thrilled to have found a long-term partner that shares our patient- and physician-centric outlook. We are very excited to work with Partners Group to both strengthen ECP's offering and expand our presence throughout the U.S.”

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.