Healthcarefirst sells to private equity firm

Father-and-son owners Bob and Bobby Robertson retain some ownership of the health care software provider, according to Bobby Robertson, who continues as CEO. He would not disclose ownership percentages or the sale price.

Healthcarefirst’s market position and growth potential were what attracted The Riverside Co., Robertson said. Healthcarefirst posted 79 percent revenue growth between 2005 and 2007, with $4.73 million in 2007 revenues, and for two years running it has been named a fastest-growing company in the Ozarks at Springfield Business Journal’s Dynamic Dozen awards.

“The Riverside team quickly recognized the growth potential at Healthcarefirst,” Riverside Managing Partner Loren Schlachet said in a news release. “In addition to the significant industry growth trend, we see potential in marketing the complementary product extensions for (Healthcarefirst’s) software.”

Added Robertson, “We had a (silent) partner (John Singer) that wanted to exit, and we decided it was a good time to seek some capital. The Riverside Co. had been researching the industry and selected our company as the greatest potential as far as what we were already doing, the technology we were using and the people we had in place to grow into a much larger entity.”

Coming under The Riverside Co. umbrella will provide Healthcarefirst the resources to increase market share, look at acquiring small companies and possibly add local jobs, Robertson said. And there are no plans to leave Ozark, he added.

“We’re able to now go out and accelerate what we’ve been doing, many times over,” Robertson said.

Healthcarefirst employs 50 and offers Web-based software and services to the home health and hospice industry. Singer and Ron Stringer founded the company in 1992 in Texas, and the Robertsons started by doing marketing for the company. Stringer sold the business to the Robertsons in 1998, and they relocated to southwest Missouri about five years ago.

The Riverside Co. specializes in buying profitable, well-managed small- and medium-sized businesses that are market leaders in their niche, according to the release. The firm has 17 offices globally – including seven in the U.S. – and its portfolio comprises 66 companies with combined annual sales of $3.2 billion.