Water Street Announces Sale of Medical Specialties Distributors

CHICAGO, Dec. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic investor focused exclusively on the health care industry, announced today that it has sold Stoughton, Mass.-based Medical Specialties Distributors, LLC ("MSD") to New Mountain Capital.  Water Street partnered with MSD's management team in 2010 to build the company into the nation's leading distributor and solutions provider to the growing alternate-site home infusion therapy market.

MSD has achieved strong double-digit growth annually since Water Street invested in the company.  Working with management, Water Street developed and executed a strategic plan that expanded MSD's capabilities and extended its offering into new markets as demand for intravenous (IV) therapy in the home increased.  In June 2013, MSD acquired Medical Technology Resources, LLC ("MTR") to further its leadership position in the home infusion market.  Today, MSD serves more than 4,000 health care providers across North America with a total enterprise solution comprised of infusion therapy products, supplies, biomedical services and information technology solutions.

"Water Street has been instrumental in our company's success. Its team helped us generate new ideas and expand our relationships with the industry's leading manufacturers and multi-site health care providers. We transformed MSD's products and services into a holistic offering uniquely tailored to the needs of our customers.  We look forward to building on the strong foundation we created with Water Street," said Jim Beck, president and CEO, MSD.

"We were fortunate to partner with a terrific management team, led by Jim, to build MSD into a market leader.  Together, we developed and executed a strategic plan that expanded the company's core capabilities and positioned MSD as the only distributor that can support customers with a total enterprise solution of products and value-added services," said Rob Womsley, partner, Water Street.

Water Street's sale of MSD is the health care firm's fourth divestiture in the past two months.  It recently sold its pharmaceutical services company AAIPharma Services Corp. to Cambridge Major Laboratories.  In October, Water Street sold two laboratory services companies: ConVerge Diagnostic Services to Quest Diagnostics and PLUS Diagnostics to Miraca Life Sciences.  Water Street also recently invested in Temptime Corporation, which specializes in time-temperature indicators, as well as a company that is developing multiple generic product families on behalf of a global pharmaceutical leader. 

About Water Street

Water Street is a strategic investor focused exclusively on health care. The firm has a strong record of building market-leading companies across key growth sectors in health care. It has worked with some of the world's leading health care companies on its investments including Gentiva, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Smith & Nephew. Water Street's team is comprised of industry executives and private equity professionals with decades of experience investing in and operating global health care businesses. The firm is headquartered in Chicago. For more information about Water Street, visit waterstreet.com.

SOURCE Water Street Healthcare Partners