Ready for Change is a provider of specialist mental health care focused on addiction issues. The organization is known for high-quality care, with high success rates and strong client appreciation. Ready for Change was part of Zorg van de Zaak, which supports organizations with absenteeism, prevention, and strengthening employees and teams. Within Ready for Change, the managing director had risen from practitioner to the top leadership position. Both parties decided to explore a management buy-out: for the director, a step toward entrepreneurship, and for Zorg van de Zaak, the divestment of a unit that no longer fit within its strategic focus.
The challenge
Determining an appropriate price was complex in this process. The results of Ready for Change were not clearly visible: part of the costs was recharged by Zorg van de Zaak and was difficult to allocate to the company itself, making the independent, representative profitability difficult to determine. In addition, a change in the claims and invoicing model had an impact on the determination of the working capital requirement.
Beyond the deal
Maasdael prepared a valuation with a well-founded assessment of the stand-alone profitability and mapped out the key areas of concern. Subsequently, we guided the negotiations, the due diligence, and the coordination with financiers and external advisors through to completion. For the managing director, this was more than a transaction: it was the step from employee to owner of the company she had helped build. As owner, she could henceforth continue the business independently.
The value of sector knowledge
Addiction care, and the broader healthcare sector, is characterized by a high regulatory burden: healthcare budgets, volume caps, contract negotiations with insurers, and increasingly complex laws and regulations. This requires strong leadership and focus, especially for smaller providers, for whom this regulatory burden is becoming increasingly heavy. Especially in such an environment, it is of great value to combine financial expertise with an understanding of the dynamics in which a healthcare business operates.
