Odyssey Investment Partners divests One Call to Apax

December 2013 | DEALFRONT | PRIVATE EQUITY & VENTURE CAPITAL

Financier Worldwide Magazine

Private equity (PE) firm Odyssey Investment Partners announced on 25 October that it had entered into an agreement to sell its portfolio company One Call Care Management to funds managed by fellow PE firm Apax Partners. The fee is believed to be in the region of $2.2bn. Completion of the transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2013 and is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

In early October Apax also announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Align Networks from General Atlantic and The Riverside Company. Align is a workers’ compensation physical medicine network. Once the two transactions have been completed, One Call and Align will likely merge to strengthen the value proposition to customers, injured workers and providers.

It is believed that Apax prevailed over other rival PE firms in the auction for One Call. Firms including the Carlyle Group LP, Hellman & Friedman LLC and a consortium of Silver Lake and Berkshire Partners LLC are all thought to have expressed an interest in the company.

Odyssey acquired One Call Medical in December 2009 before merging the company with MSC Care Management in August 2012 to form One Call Care Management. Since One Call Medical was acquired by Odyssey, the company has grown both organically and through acquisitions across a number of segments of the workers’ compensation landscape. “It has been a privilege to work with Joe Delaney and the entire One Call team,” says Jeffrey McKibben, a managing principal at Odyssey. “We believe the company has a long runway of future growth and we wish the team continued success.”

In a statement announcing the deals for One Call and Align, Buddy Gumina, a partner at Apax, said, “We are delighted to be bringing together two premier assets in an industry with excellent secular tailwinds to create a best-in-class provider of workers’ compensation services. One Call is an extraordinary company with an industry leading suite of service lines. Adding Align’s strong singular expertise in physical medicine will be transformational and allow One Call to provide an even higher level of service to the patient, payer and provider communities. We look forward to partnering with the management team to further accelerate the growth of the business.”

Apax is one of the world’s leading PE investment groups; the firm operates globally and has more than 30 years of investing experience. Funds advised by Apax total more than $40bn around the world and invest in companies across four global sectors of healthcare, consumer, services, and tech and telecom.

New York-based PE firm Odyssey hired the Jefferies Group in July to handle the sale of One Call. Founded in 1993 and based in New Jersey, One Call manages workers’ compensation claims by providing connections to diagnostic radiology and neurodiagnostics providers within the US. The company also develops and manages diagnostic scheduling networks for the workers’ compensation, group health, and auto insurance industries to provide diagnostic radiology and neurodiagnostic procedures. One Call processes over 450,000 diagnostic referrals, 600,000 transportation referrals, and over 7500 dental referrals a year, making it one of the US’ largest providers of specialty provider services to the workers’ compensation industry.

Upon completion of the two deals, and the subsequent One Call-Align merger, Joe Delaney, the incumbent president and chief executive of One Call, is expected to continue in his current roles.

Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal adviser to One Call, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP represented Align and General Atlantic, Jones Day represented The Riverside Company, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal adviser to Apax Partners.

The deal for One Call saw Odyssey sell its second portfolio company in less than a month. Earlier in October the company reached an agreement to sell TNT Crane & Rigging Inc, one of the largest US crane service providers, to energy-focused PE firm First Reserve Corp, in a deal valued at between $700m and $800m.

Richard Summerfield