Expansion is on the horizon for American Veterinary Group, the owner of 46 hospitals in six states, after the company agreed to an investment deal with the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital.
Details of the sale by Trive Capital, another private equity firm, to Oak Hill were not revealed. Oak Hill invested an undisclosed sum in the much-larger VetCor veterinary hospital network in 2018.
American Veterinary Group, founded in 2015, owns and manages general practice and urgent care hospitals in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. Acquired hospitals keep their medical teams, identify and culture.
“We immediately were impressed with Oak Hill’s knowledge of the veterinary services space but more importantly their shared value of the long-term client relationships built by our local veterinary teams across our hospitals on a daily basis,” said Craig Niebur, CEO of American Veterinary Group. “We are excited about this alignment with our core values as this partnership positions us to continue our vision of expanding the AVG family of hospitals that we have built over the last five years.”
Oak Hill managing partner Steve Puccinelli said American Veterinary Group “is well-positioned for growth in the highly fragmented veterinary care services market.”
American Veterinary Group’s executive team is expected to stay with the company. Among the leaders are two veterinarians: chief operating officer and chief medical officer Christopher Smith, DVM, and Jim Dobies, DVM, president of the six-hospital UrgentVet division.
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