New Century Hospice, headquartered in Dallas, TX, provides home hospice serviced primarily to Medicare patients. The Company was founded by David Gasmire, former president and CEO of Odyssey Healthcare (“Odyssey”), and by former senior executives of his team. New Century Hospice was formed to acquire and manage high quality hospice operations throughout the United States.
Situation
In September 2010, Petra co-led a $20 million financing with Scale Venture Partners to finance the founding of New Century Hospice. In conjunction with this financing, New Century acquired Cosmos Hospice, LLC and its 9 hospice programs and 300 patients.
Petra’s Role
In addition to its equity investment, Petra structured a delayed draw subordinated debt vehicle to provide New Century a pool of capital to grow via acquisition. Throughout the investment, New Century made 5 acquisitions totaling 7 locations and 330 patients. Despite the successful acquisitions made by New Century, even more impressive was the amount of growth achieved organically, an anomaly in the hospice industry. Throughout the life of the investment, New Century grew from a base of 300 patients to near 1,500 patients, while only acquiring 330 patients, a 30%+ CAGR from organic growth alone. In addition to providing creatively structured capital, David Fitzgerald served on the Board at New Century, was a member of the compensation committee and was instrumental in providing strategic direction to the Company.
Results
In January 2016, New Century was acquired by Curo Health Services, a portfolio company of Thomas H. Lee Partners.