Both junior and senior practice partners could benefit from private equity transaction

In the following paragraphs I would like to present an illustration of how a private equity transaction might work for an ophthalmology private practice, and it is important to emphasize the word “might” with the usual caveats about inability to predict the future. Nonetheless, I think the illustration will help many understand the economics.First, a few personal thoughts and disclosures. My partners and I at Minnesota Eye Consultants (MEC) recently completed a private equity (PE) transaction with Waud Capital of Chicago to create an entity called United Vision Partners (UVP). So, I am walking the walk, not just talking the talk. The current PE transactions occurring in ophthalmology are very different from the physician practice management company (PPMC) roll-ups that occurred in the late 1990s. I can state this from experience because I was the chief medical officer and a member of the board of directors of Vision 21, a PPMC that MEC partnered with from 1996 to 2000. The Vision 21 deal was all stock and no cash to the partners. If a partner sold his stock at the high-water mark, he had a great outcome. Of course, none of us did that.