New joint venture will be majority owned by Black Rock, minority owned by Center Well Center Well can buy clinics back from the venture from 2028 Extra capital will fund new clinics and acquisitions over two years Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has agreed to sell its equity stake in joint ventures that own nearly 150 Center Well Senior Primary Care clinics to funds and accounts managed by HPS Investment Partners, part of BlackRock. WCAS's stake is valued at about $2.8 billion. The deal will replace the existing joint ventures between WCAS-affiliated funds and Humana's Center Well with a new joint venture, majority owned by BlackRock and minority owned by Center Well.
According to Humana, the WCAS joint ventures helped scale Center Well into the largest US provider of senior-focused, value-based primary care over the past seven years. Center Well will continue to manage and operate all the clinics. The terms of the new venture have been modified to reflect the maturity of the business.
Over the next two years, the joint venture is expected to deploy additional capital to fund existing clinical operations, open new clinics and expand through acquisitions. From 2028, Center Well will have the option to buy clinics from the joint venture. If it has not acquired all the clinics by the end of 2033, BlackRock will have the right to exit through a sale process for the remaining clinics, subject to Center Well's right to make the first offer.
The new structure removes the put arrangements in the existing joint ventures, and Humana expects a significant reduction in balance sheet liabilities and a lower cost of capital. The deal is Humana's second with BlackRock this year, after it agreed to sell all or substantially all of its minority interest in Gentiva to a consortium of investors that includes BlackRock. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Guggenheim Securities was lead financial adviser and Goldman Sachs was financial adviser to Humana, with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson as corporate legal counsel.
Source: PE Hub · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing