TPG Growth acquires travel nurse provider Medical Solutions

TPG Growth has reached a deal to purchase a majority stake in Medical Solutions LLC, a U.S. provider of healthcare staffing services, from private equity management firm Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Co. (BPOC). The target also offers assistance and continuing education resources for travel nurses.

Medical Solutions provides more than 1,600 hospitals with “highly skilled and qualified” travel nurses on 13-week assignments. The targets places registered nurses in temporary travel positions across the nation. Medical Solutions has staffing operations in Omaha, San Diego, Cincinnati, Denver and Tupelo, Mississippi. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Faced with large patient volumes and nursing shortages, more and more hospitals are searching for reliable, qualified nurses,” states TPG partner Matthew Hobart. The company says it is positioned “to help solve this imbalance between supply and demand” as a travel nurse staffing service.

TPG Growth is the middle-market and growth equity arm of private investment firm TPG. San Francisco-based TPG Growth has more than $8.3 billion in assets under management. The firm is also backed by the resources of TPG’s nearly $72 billion in assets under management. The firm recently backed software distributor C3 lot in September 2016 and also raised a $3 billion middle-market fund.

BPOC is a Chicago-based private equity firm that acquired Medical Solutions in 2015. Founded in 1996, the firm focuses on the healthcare industry. BPOC has raised more than $1 billion investable capital since its inception.

Aging populations in the U.S. are among the reasons nursing deals have begun to pick up. Other in-home healthcare and medical deals include: Owens & Minor Inc.’s (NYSE: OMI) agreement to buy medical supply distributor Byram Healthcare for $380 million in cash; Revelstoke Capital Partners-backed Career Step LLC’s acquiring Panacea Healthcare Solution; and C.R. Bard Inc.’s (NYSE: BCR) purchasing distributor of home medical supplies Liberator Medical Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LBMH).

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal adviser to TPG, while Paul Hastings is acting as legal adviser to BPOC. Jefferies LLC is acting as lead financial adviser to Medical Solutions, while Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC) is acting as co-adviser. UBS Investment Bank and Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey Inc. are advising TPG on the transaction and are providing financing as well.