Radiology provider Akumin to acquire Alliance Healthcare Services for $820M
Outpatient imaging center operator Akumin has reached a deal to acquire Alliance Healthcare Services for $820 million, the two announced Friday morning.
Based in Irvine, California, Alliance provides an array of services in oncology and radiology, including imaging joint ventures, assistance with center acquisitions, and outsourced care. Leaders expect to close the transaction in 2021’s third quarter, subject to antitrust approval from U.S. regulators.
“The acquisition of Alliance is transformative in a changing healthcare ecosystem that continues to shift toward outpatient, price-transparent, value-based care,” Akumin President and CEO Riadh Zine said in a statement. “There’s no other organization that has the complement of attributes we will offer together as outpatient healthcare services experts, in particular with Alliance’s longstanding hospital and health system relationships and Akumin’s freestanding operational expertise.”
Alliance is owned by Tahoe Investment Group, a Chinese financial firm, which acquired the healthcare company for $178 million through two separate transactions in 2016 and 2017. Bloomberg reported back in August that Tahoe was potentially seeking a sale and could fetch upward of $400 million.
Akumin, meanwhile, calls Plantation, Florida, its United States headquarters, with offices in Toronto. If regulators approve the purchase, the combined company will produce annual revenue of more than $730 million with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $210 million.
Zine and colleagues said the merger would create a company offering the “most comprehensive” radiology and oncology solutions in the U.S. That would include more than 1,000 hospital and health system customers, 154 independent outpatient radiology centers, and 34 radiation therapy clinics. Akumin would employ some 4,000 team members in 46 states, according to an announcement.
The radiology provider has been on a buying binge this year, acquiring a 34% stake in an artificial intelligence firm for $4.6 million and six freestanding imaging centers for $39 million. An affiliate of investment firm Stonepeak provided a debt and equity financing commitment to Akumin in connection with Friday’s deal.
Alliance Healthcare Services CEO Rhonda Longmore-Grund called the proposed deal “truly exciting” while touting the firm’s 30-year history of partnering with hospitals. Tahoe Investment Group said upon closing, it will transition to minority owner of the newly combined, publicly traded entity.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.