PE Firms Pay Big for Medical Transportation

PE Firms Pay Big for Medical Transportation

KKR & Co., through its portfolio company, is the second private equity firm to pay more than $2 billion for a medical transportation company in 2017. The medical transportation market, falling under the “Other Services” category, has seen a couple of large deals in 2017, as some big name companies decide to change hands. On August 8, 2017, Envision Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: EVHC) announced it was selling its medical transportation subsidiary, American Medical Response (AMR), to Air Medical Group Holdings, Inc. (AMGH), a portfolio company of KKR & Co. (NYSE: KKR). The deal comes more than two years after KKR bought it from Bain Capital and Brockway Moran for an undisclosed... Read More »
PE Firms Pay Big for Medical Transportation

Air Methods Corp. Flies to American Securities

Air Methods Corporation (NASDAQ: AIRM), a global air medical transportation company, has been on the acquisition trail since the late 1990s, announcing 12 deals targeting smaller air ambulance operators. Now it’s a takeover target itself, thanks to activist shareholder Voce Capital Management LLC. Voce Capital, and its managing director J. Daniel Plants, had been calling for Air Methods management to put the company on the block as far back as 2015. In February 2017, the investment firm launched a fight for four board seats and publicly criticized AIRM’s financial returns and “a multi-year syndrome of operational, strategic and governance failures.” Air Methods... Read More »

NKKR Buys a Texas Air Ambulance Company

Air ambulance companies are not on most investors’ radar, yet at least one acquisition of this ancillary healthcare service pops up about once a year. This year’s deal came early, as KKR & Co. LP (NYSE: KKR) paid an undisclosed amount for Air Medical, an air ambulance company based in Lewisville, Texas. It was owned by affiliates of private equity firms Bain Capital and Brockway Moran & Partners. Last year’s air ambulance deal was announced in August, when privately held REACH Air Medical Services of Santa Rosa, California acquired Emergency Airlift Service in North Bend, Oregon. No prices were disclosed, of course. In fact, the last price we recorded for an air ambulance company... Read More »