BelHealth Investment Partners LLC, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, acquired AHS Staffing LLC, a healthcare staffing firm based in Edmond, Okla. AHS Staffing also announced Steven Francis — the co-founder and former chairman and CEO of AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AHS) — joined the company as executive chairman. Richard Frankl also joined the company as CFO.
AHS operates two divisions: pharmastat for pharmacy staffing and renalstat for dialysis travel nurses.
BelHealth acquired a majority stake in the company from CEO Mark Smith, President Jerick Henley and three next-level managers. This team will remain in place and continue to lead the company, which will retain the AHS brand.
The transaction closed Oct. 14; terms were not disclosed.
“We are excited to partner with BelHealth, an experienced healthcare private equity firm,” Smith said. “We have a built a strong platform that is well positioned to capture the significant opportunities in the healthcare staffing market. BelHealth has an extensive healthcare network and we look forward to working together to build AHS into a diversified, national staffing business.”
Smith’s history in the healthcare industry also includes founding Foundation Medical Staffing in 1999. That company was later sold in 2005 to CHG Healthcare Services.
BelHealth has $500 million of assets under management and only invests in the healthcare sector. AHS is its first healthcare staffing firm investment. Plans call for adding recruiters and business development professionals nationwide to fuel organic growth, and also aggressively pursuing add-on acquisitions that provide service line and geographic diversification.
The private equity firm is in preliminary conversations with a few possible acquisitions targets but it is too soon to comment on them, according to Paul Barrett, senior associate at BelHealth. It is seeking travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, physical therapy and lab staffing providers.
“Mark and Jerick are experienced entrepreneurs that have built an exceptional business,” Barrett said. “We look forward to partnering with the entire AHS team and helping the company accelerate its growth. With the prior successes of the founders, favorable industry tailwinds, focus on specialty areas of healthcare staffing and fragmentation of the industry yielding numerous add-on acquisitions, we are confident in our approach to build a national, diversified staffing platform through both organic growth and acquisitions.”
AHS also announced Steven Francis joined the company as executive chairman. Francis is the co-founder and former chairman and CEO of AMN Healthcare Services, the largest US healthcare staffing firm.
Francis founded AMN with his wife Gayle in 1985. He served as CEO of the company until 2005, and as chairman of the board until 2008. Following his tenure at AMN, Francis was chairman of travel nurse provider Medical Solutions, which was acquired by investment partners Beecken Petty O'Keefe & Company and Heritage Group in September 2015.
“We are excited to welcome Steven to the team,” CEO Mark Smith said. “We are well positioned to take advantage of the positive tailwinds in the staffing industry and execute on our growth plan. We look forward to leveraging Steven’s incredible industry experience and successes to help AHS accelerate its growth.”
Richard Frankl also joined AHS Staffing as CFO. The appointment took effect Oct. 14, when BelHealth acquired AHS. AHS has had a controller since its inception, but with the new partnership and growth strategy, wanted to put an experienced CFO in place.
“We are excited to welcome Richard to the team,” CEO Mark Smith said. “As our company enters its next growth phase, it’s critical to have an experienced CFO managing our finance department. With Richard’s prior experience leading finance teams for high growth, private equity-backed companies, and executing aggressive acquisition strategies, he is the perfect fit to lead our finance department.”
Frankl most recently served as VP of finance (divisional CFO) of Acosta Sales & Marketing, a $2 billion revenue company owned by the Carlyle Group. Frankl’s division within Acosta, which accounted for $500 million in revenue, was formerly Mosaic Sales Solutions and previously owned by Court Square Capital Partners. Prior to joining Acosta and Mosaic, Frankl was CFO of Star Concessions, a group of restaurant, retail and convenience stores with $100 million in revenue.
