Deals of the Year for 2023

Our winner of Deal of the Year is Warburg Pincus’ exit of Summit Health (formerly CityMD) at a walloping $8.9 billion. The deal had a historical component as well, with covid hitting in the midst of Warburg’s hold, and with CityMD being at the heart of the New York City’s covid testing at the time. “That was a pivotal moment in the company’s trajectory,” recalls Warburg’s TJ Carella. “Everything was turned upside down in New York.” Managing Summit Health’s merger with CityMD in 2019, right before covid, added to the complex brew.

Other winners: Kaiser Permanente’s $5 billion portfolio sale earns the Secondaries title; Ares Management’s exit of Savers Value Village, a for-profit thrift chain, wins the Turnaround trophy; for the International category, BlackRock LTPC’s sale of luxury fragrance Creed (which was founded in 1760 and had Queen Victoria as a customer); the Mid-Market winner is Vestar Capital Partners’ exit of foodservice equipment and services distributor Edward Don & Co; and, finally, Vesey Street Capital Partners’ exit of healthcare data services firm Quality Metric wins the Small Market sector.

Our criteria for picking winners include metrics such as multiples on invested capital, internal rates of return, EBITDA, employee retention and expansion, portfolio company growth and organic growth of companies. We also look at investment rationale and plans, as well as methods of growth and how exits were made.