New York, NY – August 9, 2010 – Vestar Capital Partners (“Vestar”), a leading global private equity firm, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement and concurrently closed the sale of Joerns Healthcare (“Joerns”) to Joerns management and Quad-C Management, Inc., a Charlottesville, VA-based private equity firm. In addition to Vestar, the other selling shareholders include Park Avenue Equity Partners. Joerns management will retain a significant equity stake in the business going forward. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
James L. Elrod, Jr., Co-Head of Vestar’s Healthcare Group, said, “We are very pleased with the successful sale of Joerns to Quad-C, where we believe the company will continue its trajectory of growth and success. Joerns has been an excellent investment for Vestar since its 2006 spinoff from Sunrise Medical. We have worked with management to optimize the company’s operations, complete strategic tuck-in acquisitions and diversify the company’s service offerings to span the growing needs in the long-term care market. Working with the Joerns team has been a rewarding experience and we wish them much continued success.”
Joerns Healthcare was originally part of Sunrise Medical, Inc., a company acquired through funding from Vestar IV in 2000 and spun out of Sunrise Medical in 2006 as an independent company. Under Vestar’s ownership and the leadership of the management team, Joerns has successfully grown its national service operations platform and improved operational efficiencies and margins, reducing leverage substantially and creating significant shareholder value. In addition to Joerns, Vestar has spun out two other companies from Sunrise Medical: DynaVox and DeVilbiss Healthcare, creating four independent companies from its initial investment.
Joerns was advised by Piper Jaffray and received legal counsel from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
Today’s announcement is the latest of four successful realizations for Vestar in the last seven months. In December 2009, Vestar closed the sale of its Birds Eye Foods portfolio company for $1.3 billion to Pinnacle Foods; Symetra Financial was the first IPO of 2010, a $365 million offering which priced within its range and was upsized due to demand; and DynaVox went public in April 2010 in a $141 million offering.
About Vestar Capital Partners
Vestar Capital Partners is a leading global private equity firm with over 22 years of experience investing in middle-market companies with $7 billion in assets currently under management. From its headquarters in New York, and through its five offices in the U.S. and Europe, Vestar employs its value-oriented investment approach across a variety of industries in companies ranging in total enterprise value from $250 million to $3 billion and operations in five key industry sectors: consumer/services, diversified industries, healthcare, media/communication, and financial services. Vestar invests and collaborates with incumbent management teams, family owners or corporations in a creative, flexible and entrepreneurial way to build long-term franchise and enterprise value. Since 1988, Vestar has completed 66 investments in companies with total enterprise value of over $30 billion. Vestar has operations in New York, Boston, Denver, Milan, Munich and Paris. For more information, please visit www.vestarcapital.com.
CONTACT:
For Vestar:
Owen Blicksilver Public Relations
Carol Makovich
(203) 622-4781
[email protected]
Kristin Celauro
(732) 291-5456
[email protected]
