The Top 50 Lower Middle Market Healthcare Investors & M&A Advisors.

Axial | Dani Forman

Looking back at the last two years, we can see that the U.S. healthcare industry responded to the extreme challenge of the Covid pandemic with extraordinary resilience and innovation. While the virus is not fully controlled, the industry is far from the dark spring of 2020, when intensive care units were overflowing and much of the rest of the healthcare system simply froze.

Today, hospitals have new treatment protocols. Outpatient providers have developed new ways to deliver their services safely in person or by video link. And retail pharmacies deployed testing and vaccination capabilities with speed and scale that has never been seen before.

In 2021, investors recognized the underlying strength of the healthcare industry, and indeed identified new opportunities illuminated by the pandemic. Accordingly, merger and acquisition activity in the healthcare market has been strong. New healthcare transactions brought to market via Axial’s platform increased by 60% in the first 10 months of 2021 compared to all of 2020. The number of deals that were reported as closed by members doubled.

Axial | Cheryl Meyer

Healthcare M&A activity has seen a hearty uptick this year, making it an attractive — and exhausting — space for advisors bent on helping sellers pilot through the complicated deal-making process.

Los Angeles-based Mark Thomas, Mike Moran, and Andre Ulloa, who worked together for years in a similar capacity, seized the opportunity this fall to launch their own sell-side advisory firm, M&A Healthcare Advisors. Within only five weeks of operation they were busy guiding several sell-side clients in the healthcare realm. Two of these clients operate in the behavioral health sector, and the firm’s sweet spot is aiding companies generating $100 million or less in revenue, noted Thomas, a partner and the firm’s director of operations. The firm also offers hourly consulting services and performs expert valuations and witness testimony, though sell-side representation is its primary focus.

“The fact that we have a number of sell-side clients in our first five weeks is telling for a variety of reasons,” stated Moran, partner, executive advisor, and the firm’s behavioral health specialist. The booming healthcare M&A market, much like the competitive housing market, is allowing sellers to lure numerous buyers to the table. “To us client is king, and multiple offers are a way to drive these businesses above market norms,” he said.