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Private Equity Likes Weight Loss Investments

March 1, 2021

When looking at recent deals, it’s clear that private equity investment companies really like to invest in the weight loss space. And, they make some good profits on companies they purchase and flip to other buyers.

Here are a few of the deals completed in recent years:

  • Private equity fund HIG Capital purchased Jenny Craig in April 2019, from North Castle Partners, which had owned Jenny Craig since 2013.
  • Lindora Clinics (a medical program) was purchased by Solis Capital Partners and Innovate Partners few years ago, both located in Newport Beach, CA. Solis Capital Partners is a private equity firm specializing in the lower middle market.
  • Tivity Health sold NutriSystem to Kainos Capital, October 2020, divesting itself of the business after only 18 months and taking a $570 million loss.
  • Kainos Capital acquired SlimFast from Unilever in 2014. Global nutrition group Glanbia P.L.C. then reached an agreement to acquire SlimFast and its sister company HNS from Kainos Capital in Oct. 2018, in a transaction valued at $350 million.
  • Atkins Nutritionals Holdings, a packaged food company owned by Roark Capital Group, was acquired in a deal worth $730 million by Conyers Park Acquisition Corp. on April 10, 2017.  Atkins and Conyers Park were combined under a new holding company, The Simply Good Foods Company, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol SMPL. Atkins Nutritionals was once owned by Parthenon Capital/Goldman Sachs in 2003, which after the founder’s death and waning popularity resulted in bankruptcy filing in 2005. After emerging from bankruptcy, North Castle Partners acquired Atkins in 2007, and then by Roark Capital Group in 2010 for $301 million.

As one can see, private equity activity in the weight loss market is significant. It has been very rewarding for the private equity firms and we can expect to see more of it in the next several years, as these firms take advantage of the frequent turnover when companies acquire weight loss businesses they don’t understand or know how to support.

Marketdata’s weight loss market studies contain in-depth profiles of all major competitors, in ALL segments of the weight loss market, including their history, descriptions of their weight loss programs, strategies, growth, franchising, and actual or estimated revenues.

For More Insights About Commercial Weight Loss Centers and Weight Loss Market Forecasts, watch for Marketdata’s upcoming newly revised report: “The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market, due out in early-mid March. See www.marketdataenterprises.com for a Table of Contents and to order the study. Or call: 813-971-8080, M-F, 9-5.

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