IPO FILING: Critical Homecare Solutions Holdings, Inc.

Critical Homecare Solutions Holdings, Inc. has filed to come public via an IPO.  For filing purposes it has said it will sell up to $125 million in common stock under the ticker "CHCS" on NASDAQ.  The initial filing shows UBS Investment Bank as the lead underwriter and co-managers are listed as Jefferies & Co. and Piper Jaffray. 

The company operates in two segments: home infusion therapy and home nursing.  It is a provider of comprehensive home infusion therapy services to patients suffering from acute or chronic conditions and it claims to deliver over 400,000 infusion pharmaceuticals and equipment each year to patients in the home through our 33 infusion locations in 14 states.  It also provides over 350,000 nursing and therapy visits and 500,000 private duty nursing hours each year to patients in the home through our 32 home nursing locations in three states.

Its filing also notes that it currently provide customized local clinical care to over 19,000 patients through its branch network and have relationships with approximately 450 payors, including insurers, managed care organizations and government payors. In the year ended 2006 and the six months ended June 30, 2007, we generated pro forma net revenue of $176.1 million and $92.8 million, respectively.

If you want a summary of the company, it is the boots on the ground for the homecare business in the long-term care segment of the health and insurance business.  The home health care sector is estimated by Frost & Sullivan to have accounted for between approximately $47 billion and $58 billion of overall health care spending in the United States in 2005 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 8% from 2005 to 2010. Home health care services can provide a less expensive alternative to the provision of similar treatments in hospitals, nursing facilities or on an outpatient basis.  The company has just completed three smaller acquisitions, and based upon the fragmented marketplace in the homecare market there are hundreds or more companies that could be rolled up.

Jon C. Ogg
October 11, 2007