Carlisle Health snaps up rival radiologist; monitors for sale symptoms
Carlisle Health is scanning for more radiologists. Street Talk understands the healthcare roll-up has agreed terms to add a sizeable bolt-on acquisition to its fast-growing portfolio of radiologist clinics, just five months after it snapped up Exact Radiology.
Now under its wing: Dr Glenn and Partners and its three New South Wales clinics in Kogarah, Wollongong and Rockdale, delivering services like x-rays, MRIs, CTs and ultrasounds.
Sources who spoke to Street Talk reckon Carlisle Health, led by the same team as the former Alfred Imaging team and backed by high-net-worth overseas investors, will add a handful more practices before seeking to sell the group to trade or private equity in 2024.
Carlisle Health operates radiology services in Queensland and NSW.
The Glenn and Partners acquisition brings Carlisle Health’s portfolio to 25 doctors across 22 practices. The business makes about $100 million at the revenue line, sources said. The roll-up is understood be profitable to the tune of $15 million to $20 million.
The radiology sector has been a hotbed of M&A activity over the past five years. Advent Partners bought a majority stake in Imaging Associates in 2021 and Integral Diagnostics acquired Queensland’s Peloton Radiology in February last year. Then, in December, IFM Investors and UniSuper paid $800 million to buy a majority stake in PRP Diagnostics from Crescent Capital, which nearly doubled its money.
Medical roll-ups make good money and have proved to be a happy hunting ground for private equity in fields like dentistry, radiology and IVF. The Growth Fund’s Ekera Dental is on the block via boutique M&A house Allier Capital and is understood to make around $14 million at the earnings line.
But getting the model right is important, as is keeping doctors motivated to go above and beyond when they’re no longer solely responsible for the success of the business. Smiles Inclusive, a roll-up of dental chains that floated in 2018, has been wracked by boardroom turmoil and is facing a court action surrounding the events leading up to its collapse.
Pool of bidders
Carlisle would probably be pitched at mid-market private equity firms, strategic buyers, or other radiology roll-ups like IFM Investors’ PRP Diagnostic Imaging, Allegro’s Perth Radiological Clinic, The Growth Fund’s Quantum Radiology, and Advent Partners’ Imaging Associates Group.
ASX-listed Capitol Health and Integral Diagnostics could also take a look, the latter of whom sponsored a cocktail reception at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists conference in Brisbane over the weekend.
Carlisle Health acquired Exact Radiology and its 11 clinics in May, seven months after a deal to sell the company to ASX-listed Integral Diagnostics fell over. The deal consisted of $37.5 million up front and an earn-out of up to $1.875 million depending on revenues achieved.
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