Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures in Clayton has a division that specializes in sales and purchases of home health-care businesses, and it’s thriving compared with a year ago, said Scott Osborne, managing principal. The firm, which does business nationally, is working three buy-side projects, compared with one a year ago, and six sell-side projects, compared with three a year ago.
“We will close six home-care deals in 2010, compared with three in 2009,” Osborne said. “We have four people dedicated to this industry vertical versus two a year ago.”
M&A action rebounding in St. Louis (click to read article),
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, June 2010
Gary Chippendale, a West Point graduate and winner of the Bronze Star for his service in Desert Storm, purchased All Family Care, which provides private-duty home care, from Ann and Wiley Smith, who founded the business in 2005. The sale price wasn’t disclosed, but Chippendale, formerly of Smurfit-Stone, said he plans to grow revenue to $5 million by 2012. “He’s well on his way, despite this soft economy,” said Scott Osborne of Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures, who matched buyer and seller.
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, May 2009
Scott Osborne at Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures in Clayton characterizes the current market as “wait and see” because people don’t want to sell at a low ebb. “What I call sense-of-urgency deals are still getting made,” such as sales because of divorce or illness, or companies with a good business model but a shaky balance sheet.
For smaller deals- companies with annual revenue of $2 million to $10 million- Pritchard Osborne has found a niche that hasn’t tanked, the home-care industry. The firm specializes in that small-cap arena, and does so nationally, not just regionally. “You fish in a national pond,” which increases the number of potential deals, Osborne said.
Mergers and acquisitions drop more than 30 percent (click to read article),
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, May 2009
Traditional private equity firms have to rely heavily on existing management at the companies in which they invest, said Scott Osborne, managing principal of Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures in Clayton, which works with private equity firms in mergers and acquisitions.
“Barry-Wehmiller has proven turnaround skills, which isn’t a bad thing to have in this economy with a lot of distressed companies,” Osborne said.
Chapmans Back $100 Million Investment Fund (click to read article),
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, January 2009
“Mirage had planned to double sales in three years, but it needed capital,” said Scott Osborne, managing principal at Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures, which represented the Vietses in the sale. Mirage has annual sales of $5 million.
Albrecht’s Bodley Group closes on 5th acquisition (click to read article),
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, January 2009
“Our 2009 initiatives include a stronger focus on the home-care industry, which includes medical and non-medical senior, pediatric, hospice and other care, and allows patients to be ‘de-institutionalized.’ We’ve done a dozen home-care transactions the past three years.” Scott Osborne, Managing principal, Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures
Not everyone is firing people as St. Louis companies prepare for 2009 (click to read article),
St. Louis Business Journal, January 2009
"Some of the best risk-adjusted returns in the last three years have been in private equity funds," Osborne said. The funds look for second- and third-generation family-owned businesses that are undermanaged and undercapitalized.
"If you are patient and have a five- to seven-year investment horizon, compound interest rates of return of 30 percent are not out of the ordinary," Osborne said.
Smart investors find opportunities despite sour market (click to read article),
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, November 2007
"This is great news because Bush O'Donnell has a history of investing in their own backyard, the Midwest," said Scott Osborne, managing principal of Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures. "Those investments preserve management jobs, legacy and independence."
Bush O'Donnell launches new $170 million fund (click to read article),
St. Louis Business Journal, October 2007
Kevin Kenealey, a partner at the Mason Wells private equity firm in Milwaukee, is beating the bushes in St. Louis, looking to invest in privately held family businesses with $50 million to $100 million in sales. He's been here six times in two years. So far, nada, but the word is he met with at least one manufacturing company last week. He's working with Scott Osborne at Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures in Clayton.
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, August 2007
Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures in Clayton is representing Management Buyout Two, a $300 million equity capital fund that is interested in buying a majority interest in Missouri companies with annual revenue in excess of $50 million. "This gives an owner and management team an option to stay involved, retain an ownership interest and not sell to a competitor," said Scott Osborne, managing principal at Pritchard Osborne. The owners of the fund don't want to be identified, Osborne said.
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, July 2007
Gary Weller, former chief financial officer at Outsourcing Solutions Inc. and at Sam Fox's Harbour Group, has retained Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures to find a local manufacturing and distribution business with annual revenue of $10 million to $25 million that he can own and operate.
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, April 2007
"There is significant consolidation going on in the wealth management industry, which is evolving from selling products to selling advice," said Scott Osborne, managing principal at Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures, an M&A advisory firm in Clayton." By acquiring Buckingham, Focus is gaining a sizable footprint in advice."
Buckingham Financial bought by New York firm (click to read article),
St. Louis Business Journal, March 2007
Mason Wells, a private equity firm based in Milwaukee, has targeted the St. Louis area for possible acquisitions, said Scott Osborne, managing principal at Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures in Clayton, which has been retained by Mason Wells. Mason Wells specializes in acquiring family owned and operated businesses with at least $25 million in annual revenue. Pritchard Osborne also arranged the recent sale of ISC Document Systems in St. Charles, a document management firm, to Security Micro-Imaging of Milwaukee.
Greg Edwards, St. Louis Business Journal, March 2007
A trio of investors recently acquired two local franchises of Home Instead…Scott Osborne of Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures arranged the transaction.
Martin Van Der Werf, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 2005
Dunn, a frustrated corporate drone, quit his career at the beginning of the year and had spent the months since looking for a company to buy. He looked at 38, then recently found Upright Inc...“I was tired of the corporate world and all the environments within,” he said. “I said, ‘I am going to buy a company and have some fun.’“
Martin Van Der Werf, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 2005
“This latest acquisition is what put us over the $20 million mark,” Hietpas said...Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures LLC, a Clayton mergers and acquisitions firm, conducted a nationwide search for a buyer at Nations’ request. Pritchard’s Scott Osborne and Bob Cusack handled the deal."
Nations sells First Call Team to Wisconsin firm (click to read article),
St. Louis Business Journal, June 2005
The market refers to financing from friends and family as FFF, for “friends, family and fools,” said Scott Osborne, managing principal of Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures, a merger and acquisition firm specializing in executive buyers and startup entrepreneurs...“You can fire employees and investors, but family members keep coming back,” Osborne said. “They keep showing up at Thanksgiving.”
All in the Family (click to read article),
St. Louis Business Journal, May 2005
Jim Highfill got laid off as an executive with a big company. It was the opportunity he had been waiting for…He contracted with Pritchard Osborne Equity Ventures and embarked on a yearlong search.
The Upside of Downsizing, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 2004