The Beekman Group has closed the sale of Northwestern Management Services (NMS) to Linden Capital Partners, a healthcare-focused middle market investment firm.
Founded in 2002 by chief executive David A Willens, NMS provides management and administrative services and facilities for the Gentle Dental Group and has grown into the largest dental practice management company exclusively operating in Florida.
Gentle Dental provides comprehensive general, cosmetic and specialty dental services through its network of 21 locations. The Beekman Group partnered with Willens and acquired a majority interest in NMS in December 2007.
During Beekman’s investment period, the NMS platform grew from 10 to 21 fully-operational locations, more than doubling revenues and tripling profitability, while reinvesting substantially in the company’s infrastructure and adding key senior executives to the management team. These efforts, together with strong execution by management, resulted in a successful investment for both Beekman and NMS management, generating an approximate 6x return on invested capital in slightly less than five years.
Willens says: “The Beekman Group has been a tremendous partner over the last five years. Their experience working alongside middle-market entrepreneurs proved invaluable to our team as we built an enduring platform and executed on a rapid growth plan through both new location openings and acquisitions. I look forward to future opportunities to work with them to build another great company.”
John G Troiano, managing partner of The Beekman Group, says: “We are pleased to have partnered with David and the NMS management team in building a leading dental practice management platform in an attractive region. NMS represents another example of Beekman sourcing a promising small business and partnering with owner-managers to significantly grow their operations, despite the tough Florida economy. We wish Linden much success with its investment.”
NMS is the second exit for Beekman’s first private equity fund, closed in July 2006. Together with its first exit, The Beekman Group has returned approximately 140 per cent of total invested capital, and still holds interests in four other portfolio companies.
