Partners Group is to acquire Axia Women’s Health (Axia), a women’s healthcare provider in the US, from Audax Private Equity.
Partners Group will become the majority equity holder, while Axia’s management team and physician partners will retain a substantial minority equity stake.
Axia is headquartered in Voorhees, New Jersey, and provides a highly integrated platform of non-clinical business and administrative support services, such as accounting, HR, insurance, IT, and practice management services, to its network of physician practices across the US. Axia has partnered with more than 80 care centers comprising 150 locations and supporting 475,000 patients annually, which offer a wide range of care, including obstetrics, gynaecology, laboratory, mammography, urogynaecology, fertility, and other sub-specialties.
Axia is on the forefront of delivering women’s healthcare via a truly integrated model that treats patients across different phases of life, while supporting physicians’ clinical autonomy and ability to focus on care. Partners Group will draw on its extensive experience transforming other leading multi-site healthcare businesses to support Axia’s patient-centric value creation plan. Key initiatives will include expanding in-demand ancillary services; improving patient experience, outcomes and engagement; and continued accretive M&A in both its existing geographical footprint and new regions.
Sujit John, Managing Director, Private Equity Health & Life, Partners Group, says: “Women’s health is a core theme for us and Axia is an excellent fit for Partners Group’s expertise given our significant understanding of this distinct and attractive healthcare specialty. In its next phase of growth, Axia will be able to leverage the transformative trends impacting the women’s health industry to build sustainable value through expansion of care initiatives, platform scalability and accretive growth, led by a best-in-class management team. We look forward to our partnership together.”
Charlie Choi, Chief Executive Officer, Axia Women’s Health, says: “We have taken a mission-driven, patient-centric approach to expansion that is focused on building an integrated care model to deliver physician-led care of the highest quality and service level. We believe Partners Group’s ability to help build our platform and invest in expansion of care modalities makes the firm an ideal growth partner.”
Sofia Gerard, Member of Management, Private Equity Health & Life, Partners Group, adds: “Women’s health is an essential service impacting all parts of society and Axia’s prioritization of expanded patient care aligns with Partners Group’s focus on positive stakeholder impact at all levels. Axia plays a key role in offering an integrated model to support non-clinical operations and has the opportunity to further diversify its capabilities by broadening the women’s health services it offers.”
Partners Group’s investment in Axia Women’s Health will be made through its direct equity programs, as well as several other products and customised mandates. The firm’s private equity team has an established track record of transformational investing in businesses and has invested USD 5 billion in Health & Life businesses on behalf of its clients since inception. Other recent investments in the sector include EyeCare Partners and Confluent Health, as well as Blue River PetCare and Wedgewood Pharmacy in the veterinary and pet sector.
Latham & Watkins, LLP represented Partners Group in the transaction.
