Oak Investment, Mansa Capital Recap Independent Living Systems
By Hillary Canada
Oak Investment Partners and new firm Mansa Capital have teamed up to recapitalize healthcare management services company Independent Living Systems LLC.
Miami-based ILS is looking to capitalize on a trend in many states to move elderly patients from nursing homes back into their own homes or communities. The company helps coordinate care between health plans, hospitals, physicians and patients, including services like home-delivered meals and adult day care.
ILS Chief Executive Nestor Plana said the company hired Oppenheimer & Co. last year to help it find a financial partner, but after a few meetings with potential partners had decided to go it alone. But after a meeting with Oak Investment Managing Partner Ann Lamont and Mansa Capital Managing Partner Ruben King-Shaw Jr., Plana said the company decided to reconsider. Plana said he and King-Shaw have known each other for about 30 years, through their various work in the Florida healthcare system.
Oak Investment Managing Partner Ann Lamont said the firm has been eyeing a deal in the space for some time. The Oak Investment team had worked with King-Shaw before – he sat on the board of portfolio companies athenahealth Inc. and iHealth Technologies – so partnering with Mansa “made sense,” said Lamont. Mansa is currently out raising its debut fund.
ILS is the first healthcare deal out of Oak Investment’s latest fund, which closed in 2010 with $770 million, but certainly not the first healthcare deal in Oak’s portfolio. Lamont says the firm favors healthcare plays which are “about lowering cost and improving quality in healthcare.”
“If you’re doing those two things, you’re going to be on the right side of any regulations,” said Lamont, noting that the firm doesn’t invest in companies that are concerned with reimbursement rates.
ILS will use the capital to improve its systems and to continue its expansion into other states.
Oak Investment’s typical deal size is between $25 million and $150 million. Lamont declined to discuss specifics of the ILS deal but said it was on the smaller end of the typical range. The firm usually takes non-control stakes of between 20% and 50%.
Reach Mansa at 617-424-4940 and Oak Investment at 203-226-8346.