2020 M&A Year In Review

As 2019 ended, the M&A markets in the DSO markets were white hot.  Every deal that we took to market enjoyed multiple bids and our clients were continually awarded extremely lucrative valuations for their businesses.  The buy-side was voracious: there were more buyers than ever and new ones appearing every day willing to pay more and more to enter the DSO space.  The debt markets were strong, the money was cheap, and lenders were clamoring for deals.  It was truly a sellers’ market and the valuations kept creeping higher and higher.

Internally, our plan was to scale the business as we were picking up more and more mandates on the sell-side and saw an ever-deepening pool of investors and buyers.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”

Mike Tyson

Top 3 (not so) Obvious Reasons to Engage TUSK as Your Sell-Side Advisor

As you all know by now, there are more buyers for dental practices in the market than ever before. Additionally, the value of your practice or group is likely as high as it ever has been (and ever will be). And finally, it would shock me if anyone who is reading this blog (and owns a group or large practice) has NOT received an unsolicited offer from a buyer.

Dad’s Story...

Around 2008, my father, Dr. Ben Cumbus, a pediatric dentist from Montgomery, AL, was looking to sell a portion of his practice to an associate. Leading up to that decision to sell, my father worked diligently as a solo doctor each week for over 30 years to serve our city’s children to meet their oral healthcare needs. Although the practice had a humble beginning in a small office park, he moved the business to its permanent location in a beautiful standalone building with a caboose on the front that served as a waiting room for the kids. Over the years, his team and business grew, and the practice (and the caboose) became a bit of an icon in the city.

Whew – what a year! 2019 was a whirlwind of activity at TUSK and in the DSO economy. We saw a significant amount of change, growth, M&A activity and new entrants into the market that it is hard to keep track of. Before we dive into 2019, let’s reflect on how the year started by looking at how 2018 ended:

- We saw transformational growth of some of the enterprise level DSOs including Heartland and Pacific Dental both adding 100 practices or more and NADG growing the number of affiliated practices by 49% in just one years’ time.  New doctor-founded, debt-funded groups were popping up on our radar regularly.

- Attendance at almost all DSO conferences were up big – interest in the space was growing.

- We were getting a call from a new Private Equity Group interested in the DSO space a couple of times a month.

- At TUSK, we sold more practices than ever before, across all specialties at multiples well above our client’s (and frankly our expectations) and worked with well over 70 groups to help them START, GROW or SELL their practice or group.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 9, 2020

Kevin Cumbus

TUSK Partners

718-314-0980

Kevin@tusk-partners.com

TUSK Partners Releases New Podcast Series

New Content Format Promises to Increase Audience Reach

Charlotte, NC: Today TUSK Partners announced the release of a new Podcast series called “Group Dental Practice Fundamentals,” which addresses the entrepreneurial dentists who are looking to learn more detail about how to grow and exit their business. “Group Dental Practice Fundamentals” complements the company’s educational content-driven marketing strategy and is expected to make an impact in the areas of new audience outreach. The doctor-founded, debt-funded group practice segment is the fastest growing sector of the entire dental economy and the company has earned a reputation for their detail-oriented marketing philosophy.

All of those years.  All of that effort.  How many sleepless nights?  Personal guarantor on each and every loan with the bank.  Recruiting all of those associates and leading your team to a point of stability.  Your business has finally arrived at an admirable level of success – not to mention profitability. 

And then the phone rings. 

On the other end of the line is a guy you’ve never met who seemingly knows everything about your business…and he wants to buy it!  What an incredible justification for all of your hard work!

So, what are you going to do?

Doubtfully, but the Dentist Entrepreneur Organization led by Dr. Marc Cooper and CEO Jacob Puhl recently created a similar experience – and let me assure you, it was an EXPERIENCE – for four of their lucky members.

Are DSOs really going to take over the practice of dentistry? 

No, but there are a number of legitimate reasons why they've become so incredibly popular over the last several years.  We've been asked to speak to numerous groups of people over the last year and all of them - regardless of whether they were dentists, industry consultants, sales professionals or clinical professionals - have had the same questions:

• How did all of this start?
• What are the reasons behind it?
• Why is everyone so interested in forming a group or DSO?
• And, most importantly, do I want to get involved in it? 

“The day before something is a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea.” ~Peter Diamandis 

Today we're excited to announce the official launch of the TUSK Partners website.  

TUSK Partners provides Buy-Side and Sell-Side Advisory Services, Strategic Consulting and Capital Raising Alternatives to Middle Market Dental Groups and DSOs.  We are passionate about working with transformative businesses and the management teams who drive their growth.  We build long-term relationships focused on maximizing shareholder value.   

You can download more details about our service offering here.

“Leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” ~Jim Collins, Good to Great

We’re going to take a slight break from our normal discussions of ROI, growth rates, scale and finances to delve deeper into the most important capital in your business – human capital.  All of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) don’t add up to much if your team can’t execute the plan, so we’re going to talk about five critical roles in the typical DSO and how the responsibilities of each need to scale right along with the person who is accountable for it.