The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), a prominent provider of autism treatment services, has emerged from bankruptcy proceedings under new ownership. The successful bid of a combined $48.5 million comes from two separate group — Pantogran, an organization led by CARD founder and former CEO Doreen Granpeesheh, and a consortium made up of PE firm Audax Group and its portfolio companies, including Proud Moments ABA and New Story. Pantogran will pay $37.4 million and take control of 10 CARD state markets and other assets. The remainder will be split between Audax’s portfolio companies for $11.1 million, according to sale documents and several other court papers. According to the original disclosure document, CARD generated revenue of $160 million in the last twelve months ended April 2023, and an EBITDA loss of (-$22 million), implying a multiple of 0.3x revenue.
Behavioral Health EBITDA Multiples
The bankruptcy reorganization comes about five years after CARD set the bar for autism services platform deals in April 2018, when it was acquired by private equity giant Blackstone for a reported $600 million. With FY 2017 EBITDA of a reported $23 million and pro forma 2018 EBITDA of $33 million, the multiples work out to 26.1x trailing EBITDA and 18.2x pro forma 2018 EBITDA. CARDs revenue was reportedly $130 million and FY 2017 and $175 million projected for 2018, so those multiples work out to 4.6x and 3.4x, respectively.
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The Scope Research Healthcare M&A Valuation Database currently has financial details for 113 behavioral health deals going back to 2010, 79 of which include reported EBITDA multiples. The behavioral health data can be purchased individually, while our affordable annual subscriptions provide access to all of our healthcare M&A databases and segments, updated continuously.
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