The eighth annual McDermott Will & Emery Healthcare Services Private Equity (HPE) Symposium was held on March 12-13, 2014, at the JW Marriot Marquis in Miami, Florida. McDermott’s Health and Private Equity practices hosted a record crowd of over 350 top private equity professionals, investment bankers and company management teams from around the country. Speakers from a variety of sectors shared their insights and experiences on the state of private equity investing in health care services. Some of the key takeaways included:
- Operating partners of private equity (PE) firms believe that add-on acquisitions and cost-saving efficiencies will provide the most value appreciation for existing health care services platform businesses for the next 12 months;
- Most panelists believe that prospects for growth in the health care sector over the next three to five years vary significantly by sector, with health information technology and post-acute care trending towards higher growth during that span;
- Panelists remarked that successfully integrating add-on acquisition targets and sourcing the appropriate add-on acquisition targets are the most important factors in completing successful add-on acquisitions;
- Lenders asserted that the leveraged loan market continues to be strong in health care deals and explained that the continued and increased presence of alternative lenders has helped drive middle market activity; and
- While the growth in health care expenditures in the United States has slowed for a fourth consecutive year, different theories exist as to the causes behind the bending of the cost curve in this $2.8 trillion industry.
The audience was highly intrigued by the panel discussions, asking many questions of the panelists and continuing the discussions during the networking breaks and lunch. The attendees were also entertained at lunch by the keynote speaker of the conference, Joshua Foer, U.S. Memory Champion and author of the New York Times bestselling book, Moonwalking with Einstein, who shared his fascinating insight on improving ones memory through exercising the mind.
The 2014 McDermott Will & Emery HPE Symposium was once again a tremendous success and remains a go-to event for all of those desiring to gain a deeper understanding of the complex legal and business issues involved with investing in the health care services industry.