Audax Private Equity has sold Chartis to Blackstone

Chartis

Headquartered in Chicago, Chartis is a leading healthcare advisory firm with the mission of helping clients fundamentally improve healthcare delivery across the U.S. The company works with more than 900 clients annually to develop and activate transformative strategies, operating models and organizational enterprises that make U.S. healthcare more affordable, accessible, safe and humane. With more than 1,000 professionals, Chartis helps providers, payers, technology innovators, retail companies and investors to create and embrace solutions that tangibly and materially improve healthcare for the better. Chartis’ family of brands – Chartis, Jarrard, Greeley and HealthScape Advisors – is 100% focused on healthcare and each has a longstanding commitment to helping transform healthcare in big and small ways.

The Deal

Since Audax Private Equity’s investment in 2019, Chartis acquired and integrated seven add-on acquisitions, which expanded the firm’s reach into additional client sets and added complementary capabilities to better serve the healthcare community. During this period, Chartis also established several new centers for research and advancement, which contribute to better understanding and addressing healthcare where it is most vulnerable. Chartis successfully utilized its strong expertise and client relationships to continue growing organically and together with strategic mergers and acquisitions, approximately quadrupled the company’s size. Audax and Chartis were seeking to engage a partner well before the recapitalization process and turned to Lincoln International, which maintained a unique understanding of Chartis’ culture, mission and growth story after advising Chartis on the sale to Audax in 2019. After completing a transformative acquisition in early 2024, Audax and Chartis determined it was time to find the company’s next partner. Lincoln facilitated various discussions with investors that shared Chartis’ values and Blackstone emerged as the ideal partner. Blackstone’s investment will bolster Chartis’ platform and allow it to accelerate its efforts in achieving its goal of transforming healthcare delivery.

Our Perspective

Rob Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln, commented, “Chartis and Audax are both important, long-standing partners of our firm. It has been rewarding to be part of Chartis’ growth story, especially following their partnership with Audax. Our shared values with Chartis, including an employee-first culture and dedication to community advancement, provided us with a unique understanding of what they sought in their next partner. Blackstone is the perfect fit to collaborate with Chartis on the next stage of their growth journey. We truly enjoyed working with all parties and are confident that Chartis and Blackstone are poised for continued success.”

Audax Private Equity

Headquartered in Boston, with offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, Audax manages three strategies: its flagship and origins private equity (PE) strategies, seeking control buyouts in the core middle and lower middle markets, respectively, and its strategic capital strategy that provides customized equity solutions to PE-backed portfolio companies to help drive continued growth. With approximately $19 billion of assets under management (AUM) as of June 2024, more than 270 employees, and 100-plus investment professionals, Audax has invested in over 170 platforms and 1,300 add-on acquisitions since its founding in 1999. Through its disciplined buy-and-build approach, across six core industry verticals, Audax seeks to help portfolio companies execute organic and inorganic growth initiatives, with the aim of fueling revenue expansion, optimizing operations and significantly increasing equity value.

Blackstone

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Blackstone seeks to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which they invest. Their more than $1 trillion in AUM include global investment strategies focused on real estate, PE, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, credit, real assets, secondaries and hedge funds.

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