The Richmond, Virginia-based home care provider Care Advantage Inc. went through a dealmaking lull during the early days of COVID-19. Unfortunately, the pandemic has not yet completely subsided.
But that lull certainly has.
On Dec. 29, Care Advantage announced it acquired Dover, Delaware-based Silver Lining Home Healthcare. With the deal, the company has made three acquisitions in as many months.
After Searchlight Capital acquired a majority stake in the company in June, Care Advantage’s M&A efforts have been reinvigorated, CEO Tim Hanold told Home Health Care News.
“For one, there’s just a larger balance sheet [now],” Hanold said. “I think it’s to be expected that there’s going to be this point in time where we’re more assertive than we will be, let’s say, five years or six years later from now. But right now, we’re definitely ready to run. We had a pipeline that was a bit dormant at the beginning of the pandemic. … But now, we’ve been quite busy and quite acquisitive.”
Care Advantage provides a mix of personal care support and skilled services through its close to 40 locations in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Delaware. It also recently acquired two Virginia-based home care providers in My Home Companion and ElderCare.
Financial terms of the Silver Lining Home Healthcare deal were not disclosed. Currently, the provider offers at-home care services to the entire state of Delaware; it will bring about 100 caregivers into the Care Advantage network.
Expanding that Delaware footprint is in line with Care Advantage’s strategy to increase density in the markets it’s already in. Further expansion in other areas could be possible down the line, but for now, that density growth remains the No. 1 focus.
“The No. 1 thing for us is to continue to really build density in our key core markets throughout the Mid-Atlantic,” Hanold said. “But there will be contiguous states within that area [that we could explore]. Also, I would say that we would be smart and opportunistic when the right opportunities do arise outside of our Mid-Atlantic footprint. We will just assess every deal opportunity as they come.”
For now, Silver Lining Home Healthcare will continue to operate under its own name as “part of the Care Advantage family.” Traditionally, Care Advantage has allowed acquired businesses to keep their names, so long as they have strong brand equity in the areas they serve.
“This partnership positions Silver Lining to expand our service offerings and provides more resources and expertise for our team members as we continue to build on our almost decade of community relationships and extraordinary client care,” Tiffany Rubin, the founder of Silver Lining Home Healthcare, said in a statement. “We’re humbled and fortunate to be a part of making a difference in our community with the Care Advantage team.”
Moving forward, Hanold is bullish on how the M&A market looks for Care Advantage.
“I think all things personal care have been quite attractive for us, and also, we believe that the Medicaid market is priced in a way that also makes it an area of interest,” Hanold said.
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