M&A daily wrap: Rising Stars of Private Equity, Revelstoke, Cincinnati Eye Institute, Polaris Industries

Revelstoke Capital Partners is teaming up with Cincinnati Eye Institute to create CEI Vision Partners. “After a multi-year outbound search in the vision care sector, we are very excited to partner with such an impressive group of physicians and management to launch CEI Vision Partners, which marks our first investment in Revelstoke Capital Partners Fund II,” says managing partner Simon Bachleda. Revelstoke is a Denver-based PE firm that focuses on the healthcare and business services sectors. The firm was founded in 2013 and has since raised about $1.1 billion, and made 44 acquisitions. CEI conducts over 200,000 annual patient visits along with 25,000 surgical procedures across 14 clinics and three ambulatory surgical centers. The target's physician shareholders are retaining stakes in the company. PE firms are in investing in eye doctors and other areas of healthcare that are ripe for consolidation. For more, read our in-depth feature: Why private equity firms like veterinarians, opthamologists and dentists. Houlihan Lokey Inc. (NYSE: HLI) and McGuireWoods advised Revelstoke. Proskauer Rose LLP and ZD Management advised CEI.

Mergers & Acquisitions seeks to profile Rising Stars of Private Equity, and we’d like your help identifying candidates. The individuals we select will be featured on our website, www.TheMiddleMarket.com, beginning in mid-July, and in the July/August issue of our magazine. We’re looking for individuals who are full-time private equity investors and whose best days are expected to be in the future. These are the folks you predict will one day play a key leadership role at your PE firm – or heading up their own. There is no specific criteria, but investing in middle-market companies and growing them should be the focus of day-to-day activities. Promising candidates may have been recently promoted, or have recently launched a new endeavor. Most will not be at the partner level yet. There is no age cut-off. The nomination process is informal, and all decisions will be made by our editorial team, which is headed by Editor-in-Chief Mary Kathleen Flynn. Please email suggestions, questions and comments to [email protected]. In the email subject line, please include: “Rising Stars of Private Equity Candidate" and the PE professional's name and firm. Tell us why you think the individual stands out, and why his/her path is heading up. The deadline is Fri June 8. For more details, read the full story: Who are the Rising Stars of Private Equity? Nominate candidates by June 8. And for related content, see the Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, including our slideshow.

Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII) has agreed to buy boat manufacturer Boat Holdings LLC from the Vogel family and Balmoral Funds for $805 million in cash. Boat Holdings is the largest manufacturer of pontoon boats in the U.S., one of the fastest growing segments in the marine industry.The company sells products under the brand names Bennington, Godfrey, Hurricane and Rinker. Pontoon boats feature a flat surface with tubes or floats underneath and large areas on deck for socializing. "In addition to market share leadership, Boat Holdings expands Polaris’ footprint in the recreational outdoors market, commanding more of consumers’ discretionary spending," says Polaris CEO Scott Wine. Goldman Sachs & Co. (NYSE: GS) and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are advising Polaris. Stephens Inc. and Jones Day are advising Boat Holdings.

With summer road trips in mind, check out our slideshow on auto deals: Car parts makers fuel M&A, as industry readies for self-driving vehicles. Highlights include: Intel bought Mobileye, and Delphi bought nuTonomy. Meanwhile, CenterOak Partners, Clearlake and Wabash National are scooping up makers of traditional car parts.

Words With Friends owner Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNGA) has acquired mobile games developer Gram Games for $250 million in cash. Gram, founded in 2012, is known for its mobile game title Merge Dragons!

Deutsche Börse Group has agreed to buy Gain Capital Holdings Inc.'s (NYSE: GCAP) GTX ECN business, an institutional platform for trading foreign exchange, for $100 million. Jeffries LLC and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP are advising Gain.

One Equity Partners has agreed to buy Medical Properties Trust Inc.'s (NYSE: MPW) interest in hospital operator Ernest Health. MPW expects to receive $175 million in proceeds from the sale. MPW will keep Ernest's real estate.

Bregal Sagemount has invested in fleet management software provider GPS Insight. The target offers GPS tracking, customized reports and alerts to vehicle fleet operators. DCS Advisory advised GPS.

Gregg Fatzinger and Dean Asofsky have been named co-heads of North American M&A of Rabobank Group, a global financial services leader providing wholesale and retail banking, leasing, and real estate services in more than 40 countries worldwide. Asem Mokaddem has also joined the bank as managing director. Mokaddem was most recently director, corporate planning and business development at Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON).

For more recent M&A news, including Kroger's acquisition of Home Chef, see The weekly wrap: Kroger, Fifth Third, Middleby. And to see which private equity firms are raising funds, including Gryphon Partners and MSouth Equity, see PE fundraising scorecard.

Healthcare executives must adapt to technology and regulatory changes, finds the recent West Monroe Partners Healthcare M&A report. Seventy-nine percent of surveyed executives say they would likely see joint ventures or alliances over the next 12 to 18 months, due to the changing technological landscape. The report also found that 36 percent of respondents feel the fast pace of technological change poses the greatest challenge to healthcare companies over the next 1 to 3 years, and 41 percent say a company’s preparedness to respond to regulatory changes was one of their top two concerns when it comes to evaluating a target’s operational and personnel issues.

In the healthcare sector, post-merger integration efforts typically focus on care delivery issues such as streamlining patient access, standardizing care, eliminating duplication in clinical services, normalizing physician contracts and support services, and managing patient engagement and population health. Rather than viewing finance and accounting solely through the prism of follow-up and reporting activities, successful M&A teams will recognize that finance actually can play a leadership role in guiding the post-merger integration. Read the full story: 10 Strategies for integrating finance departments in healthcare M&A.

Sellers in middle-market private equity deals are driving harder bargains on the terms of the equity—or rollover--they receive as payment, according to a new report by Goodwin Procter. That trend and others outlined in the report, based on a survey of the law firm’s network of PE clients and associates, are signs that sellers seem to be gaining more of an upper hand in deal negotiations, says Goodwin partner Chris Wilson. Read the full story: Sellers gain upper hand in private equity deals, finds Goodwin Procter rollover report.

“You have to go out and make deals happen; they’re not going to occur on their own,” says TA Associates managing partner Ajit Nedungadi about the private equity firm’s focus on deal origination. Headquartered in Boston, TA has invested about $20 billion in nearly 500 companies since the firm was founded 50 years ago in 1968. We asked Nedungadi about TA’s investment strategy in Europe and the firm’s culture, including the focus on proprietary deal flow. Read the full story: At TA Associates, “you’re either working a live deal or hunting for the next one.”

“At the end of the day, it really matters how you behave if there’s a problem,” says Karin Kovacic, managing director, East Coast region, of middle-market lender Monroe Capital. Watch our video interview, which was shot at ACG InterGrowth 2018: Trust counts in lending to the middle market, says Monroe Capital’s Karin Kovacic.

More covenant-lite loans are “bleeding down” to the middle market, says Twin Brook Capital Partners co-founder Trevor Clark in this video interview, in which he discusses the downside of loosening lender protections. “There are clearly some groups out there that haven’t had as much experience lending through a credit crisis." Twin Brook won Mergers & Acquisitions' M&A Mid-Market Award for 2017 Lender of the Year.

To gain insights on how lenders evaluate potential transactions in today's highly competitive market, we asked Madison Capital Funding's chief underwriting officer Jennifer Cotton to share her thoughts. Read the full story here: Abundance of capital drives highly competitive loan process, says Madison Capital's chief underwriter.

In Mergers & Acquisitions’ updated Buyer’s Guide, we profile nine categories of product and services designed to help M&A professionals perform in today’s highly competitive dealmaking arena. Read the full story: From fund administrators to VDRs, dozens of firms help M&A pros compete.

Read full coverage of Mergers & Acquisitions' 11th annual M&A Mid-Market Award winners: Campbell Soup, Huron Capital, Idera CEO Randy Jacops, LLR Partners, McGuireWoods, Stryker, Twin Brook and William Blair.