Patient Square Capital to Purchase Summit BHC for Over $1 Billion

Approximately a month after news surfaced that Summit BHC was up for sale, a deal to buy the substance use disorder (SUD) treatment provider has been reached.

Patient Square Capital, a Menlo Park, California-based health care investment firm, has agreed to buy Summit from FFL Partners and Lee Equity Partners.

Terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday, were not officially disclosed, but PE Hub is reporting it commanded an enterprise value of $1.3 billion.

Headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, Summit provides SUD treatment and psychiatric care at 24 facilities across 16 states. The provider has been steadily growing nationwide with acquisitions and de novos, with its most recent addition having come in July with the opening of Johnstown Heights Behavioral Health in Johnstown, Colorado.

“We anticipate dramatic growth in behavioral health care services, driven by increasing societal recognition of its importance and continued need for expanded access,” said Alex Albert, a founding partner at Patient Square said in a press release regarding the deal. “Over a more than dozen year relationship with Summit’s leadership team, we’ve built strong conviction in our alignment with their mission, values and patient-centric approach.”

Word that Summit BHC was on the market emerged in late July, after PE Hub reported that global investment banks Jefferies and Moelis & Company (NYSE: MC) had been tapped to provide advice on a possible transaction.

Sources told the publication that Summit was an attractive acquisition target for a number of reasons, such as having a highly regarded leadership team and an in-network commercial business payer book of nearly 100%. The increase in demand for behavioral health services since the pandemic was also cited by sources as a strong point for a potential deal.

“Together with FFL Partners and the talented management team, we pursued a strategic plan that has enabled Summit to grow significantly to address a growing need in the community while continuing to deliver first-class care,” Mark Gormley, a partner at Lee Equity said in the press release. “The pandemic has illustrated in many dimensions how important it is to expand access to behavioral health treatment, and we are proud that Summit is leading the way.”

FFL and Lee Equity originally partnered to purchase Summit in 2017.

Patient Square was advised by the law firms Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins and McDermott Will & Emery on the purchase. On the sell side, Jeffries and Moelis advised FFL and Lee Equity.