M&A Report: Largest cancer care organization in state expands into north and central Louisiana

February 19, 2024

G.F. Gay Le Breton And Liam Norton // February 6, 2024

Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC), the largest cancer care organization in Louisiana, announced in January that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Shreveport-based MD Clinics.

The transaction is significant because it will expand MBPCC’s services into north and central Louisiana, including rural clinics that are a model for delivery of patient care close to home.

MBPCC has agreed to acquire MD Clinics’ network of eight cancer clinics and certain other assets in a transaction that is expected to close in April. The clinics will transition to MBPCC locations, with physicians and team members continuing to provide care to their patients from their existing clinic locations. The terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

MD Clinics was founded in 2018 by Dr. Manish Dhawan, with a dream to bridge access to cancer care for patients in rural areas. The clinics now provide 6,500 unique patient visits and 2,500 new patient consults annually. The practice specializes in oncology, but also offers others specialty medicine such as endocrinology, rheumatology and gynecology.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to work with the MD Clinics team, who share our vision for empowering providers with the resources needed to deliver exceptional cancer care to patients in their own communities,” said Jonas Fontenot, CEO of MBPCC.

Through the integration with MD Clinics, MBPCC will be able to enhance care in regions of Louisiana where the need is great. According to the Louisiana Tumor Registry, cancer mortality rates in central and north Louisiana are 15-20 percent higher than the national average. MBPCC will expand its clinical trials into north and central Louisiana and plans to bring its state-of-the-art technology there as well.

“Joining forces with Mary Bird Perkins empowers our team to reach more patients and offers them additional resources to achieve the best possible outcome for the patients we serve,” Dhawan said. He will continue to lead MD Clinics, which will transition to a physician practice group working collaboratively with MBPCC.

MD Clinics has locations in Minden, Natchitoches, Shreveport, Winnsboro, Vivian, Jonesboro, Springhill and Alexandria. With the new partnership in place, MBPCC’s presence expands to 18 locations in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Elsewhere in Louisiana, a New Orleans private equity fund was involved in two transactions during January. Black Bay Energy Capital, an energy and chemical industry focused fund, acquired the technology business unit of specialty chemicals company Merichem. The technology, which focuses on sulfur removal and caustic treatment, applies to many subsectors of the broader energy industry including renewables, gas treating, downstream, and midstream. Term of the deal were not disclosed.

Also Black Bay portfolio company Advanced Industrial Devices, a provider of electric motor automation and control solutions, acquired R.S. Integrators, Inc. in Pineville, NC. R. S. Integrators is a specialty electric design and fabrication company. The combined organization will “continue to capitalize on the trend of industrial electrification,” according to AID’s press release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

G.F. Gay Le Breton is managing director for Chaffe & Associates Inc., responsible for the corporate finance activities of the firm. Liam Norton is a corporate finance analyst with the firm. Investment banking services are provided by Chaffe Securities Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. For more information, visit http://chaffe-associates.com.