Riverside Launches Four Deals in Relatively Quiet Week for Most Dealmakers

The Riverside Co. is off to a busy start of 2016, announcing four acquisitions: an optometrist consulting business, a chemical safety compliance software provider, a group of dermatology practices, and a community bank and credit union services provider.

The four acquired companies are Prima Eye Group of Atlanta; SafeTec Compliance Systems Inc. of Vancouver, Washington; The Dermatology Group of New Jersey; and Kasasa by BancVue of Austin, Texas. New York –based Riverside, one of the busiest private equity firms in middle-market M&A, has made more than 410 investments since its start in 1988 and currently boasts more than 80 companies in its portfolio. The firm won Mergers & Acquisitions’ 2014 M&A Mid-Market Award for Seller of the Year.


Riverside added Prima Eye Group to its Independent Doctors of Optometric Care platform, an alliance of optometrists with about 3,100 members and more than 60 vendors. The alliance provides group purchasing, marketing and continuing education services to members. Prima Eye Group provides consulting services and purchasing programs to nearly 900 U.S. optometrists in nearly 400 practices, including services for marketing, human resources and financial analysis of practices.

SafeTec Compliance Systems Inc. is an add-on to Riverside’s Health & Safety Institute platform, which provides healthcare and workplace safety training and compliance services. SafeTec provides web-based compliance software and services for complying with chemical regulations and reducing environmental, health and safety risks. Riverside anticipates that demand for chemical compliance and safety will grow with the pending adoption of the new Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals, an international standard.

The Dermatology Group of New Jersey is a physician practice-management company with 16 offices and 34 providers in New Jersey providing dermatological clinical, surgical, cosmetic and pathology services. Riverside reported that it expects demand for dermatology services to grow, due to rising skin cancer rates and an aging population, and the PE firm expects to grow the practice group through add-on acquisitions and provider recruiting.

Kasasa by BancVue provides financial technology and marketing to more than 700 community banks and credit unions in the U.S. The company was recently included on the American Banker 2015 FinTech Forward 100 list of leading financial technology providers. Its flagship product is a suite of reward checking accounts that feature nationwide ATM fee refunds, monthly cash rewards and require no minimum balance and no monthly service fees.

Working on the Prima deal were Loren Schlachet, a managing partner at Riverside; Alan Peyrat, partner;  John McKernan, vice president; Christopher Shea, associate;  Keith Kerman, operating partner; Dan Haynes, principal; and Ross Fuller, finance director. New York-based Jones Day provided legal counsel to Riverside on the transaction, with Deloitte serving as a financial advisor and West Monroe as technology advisor.

On the SafeTec deal were Riverside’s Karen Pajarillo, Peter Tsang and Anne Hayes, partners; Connor Danielowski and John Ribble, associates; Michael Thompson, operating partner; and Operating Executive William Byers, operating executive. MidCap Financial of Bethesda, Maryland, provided financing for the transaction and Jones Day was an adviser.

Working on the Dermatology Group deal were John McKernan, vice president; Loren Schlachet, managing partner; Joe Lee, partner; Jason Chang, associate; Dan Haynes, vice president; Lynda Barr, finance director; and Scott Gilbertson, principal. Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. served as financial adviser to Dermatology Group.

For the Kasasa deal, Riverside had Alan Peyrat, partner; Schlachet, the managing partner who also worked the Prima deal; Steve Rice, vice president; Tony Trevino, associate; Shea, an associate who also worked the Prima deal; John Kish, operating partner; Dan Haynes, vice president; Christopher Lake, finance director; and  Jeremy Holland, principal. Jones Day was legal counsel, Deloitte was financial adviser and West Monroe was the technology adviser.