HOME HEALTH AND INFUSION THERAPY SECTORS SET TRANSACTION VOL UME RECORDS IN 2007

TOTAL TRANSACTION VOLUME KEEPS PACE WITH 2006

PITTSBURGH, PA, February 28, 2008 --The Braff Group (TBG), a leading middle market merger and acquisition firm that specializes in the home health care, hospice, infusion therapy, specialty pharmacy, health care staffing, and home medical equipment sectors, released its year-end 2007 merger and acquisition transaction trend report today. Based upon preliminary figures, there were 225 transactions announced and/or completed in 2007, slightly down from the 227 deals recorded last year.

The two break-out sectors of the year were home health and home infusion therapy.

For the first time since 2001, when The Braff Group began tracking health care service merger and acquisition activity, a sector exceeded 100 transactions for the year as the home health industry alone accounted for a record 107 deals, up nearly 14% from the previous record of 94 posted in 2006. Moreover, buyers’ enthusiasm for the sector has not dampened, even in the face of prospective payment system reform and payment reductions attributable to reimbursement “creep.” Accordingly, “valuations for the sector not only held up in 2007, but also ticked upwards, particularly for the most attractive, sizeable, Medicare focused platform-type acquisition targets,” commented Steven Braff, TBG Managing Director for home health and hospice. “That said, after a seven year run of relative reimbursement stability since the prospective payment system was introduced, we expect that this first wave of change and cuts will encourage more sellers to test the market, setting the stage for what we anticipate to be another robust year in home health mergers and
acquisitions.”

In terms of year-over-year deal volume growth, infusion therapy led all sectors with a surge of nearly 32%, posting a record 25 transactions in 2007 versus 19 in 2006. Also noteworthy is that in terms of the largest deals of the year, while no infusion transactions cracked the top 10 in 2006, there were 4 such deals in 2007, led by Walgreens $850 million acquisition of Option Care. “The breadth, depth, and appetite of infusion therapy buyers – from strategic players, to private equity groups, to other ancillary home care providers – for acquisition candidates both large and small, has arguably never been greater,” commented Chuck Gaetano, TBG Managing Director for home infusion therapy and specialty pharmacy. “And with 2008 getting off to a roaring start with the blockbuster acquisition of Critical Homecare Solutions (CHS) by MBF Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that effectively transforms CHS into a publicly traded company, we expect no let up in acquisition momentum or enthusiasm in the coming year.”

Link:
http://www.thebraffgroup.com/news/pdfs/Transaction_Volume_Q407.pdf