The Halifax Group has acquired the worldwide home care division of Sodexo, which includes the Comfort Keepers brand.
Overall, more than 700 home-based care locations across the world are included in the deal.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Financial details were not disclosed.
“We just love the [home care] space and and wanted to want to continue to be active there,” Halifax Managing Partner Scott Plumridge told Home Health Care News.
The Irvine, California-based Comfort Keepers is one of the largest personal home care providers in the U.S. A franchise, the company has more than 700 locations across eight countries. Sodexo originally acquired the brand in 2009.
Specifically, Halifax will now have a home care footprint across the U.S., U.K., Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Brazil.
“There’s a long-term trend, where the fastest part of the population growth is with the elderly,” Plumridge said. “For most countries, the most cost-effective place for them to age is in their own home setting versus institutional.”
Based in Washington, D.C., Halifax is a private equity firm that generally invests in lower middle-market businesses with enterprise values between $100 million and $300 million. It was an investor in the home-based care company Interim HealthCare from 2012 to 2015.
Halifax acquired the U.K.-based Bluebird Care and Australia-based Just Better Care during that investment period, eventually pairing the two with Interim to form Caring Brands International in 2013.
Its portfolio also includes mobility and accessibility equipment companies, Harmar and 101 Mobility. It previously invested in PromptCare Companies, which is a provider of specialty respiratory and infusion-therapy services.
“In our learnings over the years, home care also tends to be the preference,” Plumridge said. “That seems to be a fairly common characteristic. There’s kind of a natural push for folks to age in place moving forward.”
Comfort Keepers’ portfolio includes 535 franchised territories and 105 company-owned territories. Though it provides clinical care abroad, its focus in the U.S. is personal care, primarily of the private-pay variety.
The company recently named the Sodexo veteran Ramzi Abdine as its next CEO. He replaced Carl McManus, who had served in the role since 2017.
“We look forward to working with the leadership team to build on the company’s impressive market position and accelerate its growth,” Halifax Vice President Molly Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “Halifax has a long history of investing in home care services as well as franchisors, and we understand the advantages for all stakeholders of providing these care services in the lower-cost and comfortable home setting.”
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