NASHVILLE – A panel of top financial executives told more than 300 health care leaders at the Nashville Health Care Council’s annual Financing the Deal panel discussion on May 10 that 2011 is shaping up to be a robust year of growth and investment in Nashville’s $62-billion health care industry.
Moderated by Tom Wylly, senior partner at Brentwood Capital Advisors, the panel featured experts from investment banking and private equity who gave insider perspectives on the state of the health care market, trends in M&A activity and the outlook for funding growth across health care sectors. Participants included Andrew Bhak, managing director, Morgan Stanley; Rob DiGia, global head of health care banking, UBS Investment Bank; Annie Lamont, managing partner, Oak Investment Partners; and Raheel Zia, managing director, Merchant Banking Division, Goldman Sachs.
Panel members were enthusiastic about the health care industry’s prospects. “We have seen a tremendous snap back in the financial markets,” Bhak said. “It looks like it is going to be a very strong year.”
Zia added, “It is a fantastic time to be an entrepreneur and own or run a business. There is a lot of capital in the health care market and a lot of interest in the market from non-health care investors on the venture/private equity side.”
Panelists explored a number of key issues that are impacting the industry including health care reform. “Health care reform is propelling an explosion of new opportunities,” Lamont noted.
They also predicted increases in M&A activity as companies seek to expand the services they provide, especially efforts to increase transparency, lower costs and improve quality. The panel also noted the promise of health care IT providers that can assist in aggregating growing stores of health data and creating intelligent, usable information for physicians and patients.
“One of the key themes in health care these days is the shift from a payer-centric environment to provider-centric one,” DiGia said. “At the end of the day, providers manage care…and I think you will see a number of other companies as well as M&A transactions that will play on this theme. The market is starved for health care services.”
View insights from moderator Tom Wylly below.
Pain management, radiation oncology, new web-based and mobile technologies for patients, tools for health outcome analysis, and post-acute care services such as home health providers were among additional areas of potential growth and investment discussed.
“Nashville is home to a diverse base of health care companies from large established industry leaders to small upstart innovators that are ideally positioned to capture emerging opportunities.” said Nashville Health Care Council President Caroline Young. “As the panel underscored, health care is in a very dynamic period right now, led by Nashville’s unique industry cluster. The financing and deal-making trends we see here today, in many ways, will shape investing across the nation.”
About the Nashville Health Care Council
The Nashville Health Care Council, founded in 1995 as an initiative of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, is an association of health care industry leaders working together to further establish Nashville’s position as the nation’s health care industry capital. Worldwide, Nashville’s health care industry generates $62 billion in revenue and approximately 400,000 jobs, and is Nashville’s largest and fastest growing employer. For more information on the Council, please visit www.healthcarecouncil.com.