Scoop: Bon Secours bags Nordic Consulting Partners in $400M-plus deal

Bon Secours Mercy Health recently scooped up Silversmith Capital Partners-backed Nordic Consulting Partners in a deal sources tell Axios was valued just north of $400 million.

Why it matters: Hospitals are constantly examining ways to increase productivity and achieve cost savings, and helping those organizations solve IT problems as the industry evolves is a core part of that.

• Bon Secours in combining Nordic with its existing offerings, via its new subsidiary Accrete Health Partners, now owns the largest independent, hospital-dedicated IT outsourcing and consulting company.
• Nordic gives Accrete the scale and breadth to compete with the Deloitte’s of the world that have large hospital-based divisions.

Behind the scenes: Nordic, which came to market late last year, garnered looks from both private equity and HCIT companies that saw the business as a good entry point into health care systems, sources note.

• Guggenheim Securities advised the company.

Our thought bubble: Bon Secours has already had tremendous success with its revenue cycle management venture — Ensemble Health Partners. Now, the Catholic health system appears to be recreating that playbook with Nordic as its center point of IT consulting for hospitals.

• Berkshire Partners and Warburg Pincus earlier this year injected capital in Ensemble, thrusting its valuation north of $5 billion —more than double its 2019 TEV when Golden Gate invested.

Between the lines: Bon Secours' big vision for Nordic is TBD, but if it can turbocharge growth in a similar manner, we could be looking at another big win.

• The company is now approaching $300 million in revenue, up from sub-$50 million in top-line a decade ago, one source says.

Catch up quick: Silversmith Capital Partners in October 2016 led the minority recapitalization of Nordic, becoming its largest investor alongside SV Health investors, Health Enterprise Partners, HLM Venture Partners, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.

• The company has evolved from an Epic-centric consulting firm doing EHR implementations to a much broader-based IT consulting firm for hospitals spanning the U.S., Canada and Europe.
• It has expanded into M&A integration, optimization, digital health, RCM and data analytics, among other things.
• It supports EHRs beyond solely Epic, including Cerner, Meditech and Infor.

Bon Secours and Nordic declined to comment.