Gryphon Investors Acquires Nursefinders, Inc.

Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, and Ray Marcy, former Chairman & CEO of Spherion Corporation, announced that they have acquired Nursefinders, Inc., one of the nation’s largest nurse staffing companies to hospitals and other healthcare facilities; and a leading provider of home healthcare services. As part of the transaction, Kaiser Permanente (“Kaiser”), a current shareholder and customer, will remain a minority equity holder in the company. Nursefinders was previously owned by Atlantic Medical Capital and other institutions. Terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1974 and based in Arlington, Texas, Nursefinders is one of the nation’s largest providers of healthcare personnel and home healthcare services in the United States. Through its network of approximately 120 medical staffing and home health care offices, Nursefinders provides RNs, LPN/LVNs, home health aides, therapists, medical social workers, nursing assistants, companions and other healthcare and medical clerical professionals to more than 4,200 hospitals, nursing homes, healthcare centers and patients across the U.S.

This acquisition is the first made by Gryphon and Ray Marcy since they formed a partnership in July 2003 to build a leading specialty staffing company through acquisition and organic growth. That partnership has targeted platform acquisitions in the healthcare and professional staffing sectors in areas such as legal, finance, clerical, and general management. Specifically as it relates to Nursefinders, “We believe that the shortage of nurses combined with the increased healthcare needs of the U.S. population will lead to attractive full-cycle industry growth in the nurse staffing industry and that the movement towards vendor consolidation and partnerships between hospitals and nurse staffing companies will provide additional growth opportunities for large, established companies such as Nursefinders,” said David Andrews, President and Managing General Partner of Gryphon.

Nick Orum, Gryphon partner and head of its Business Services Group, added, “We are happy to report that our partnership with Ray Marcy and our proactive initiative in the healthcare and professional staffing businesses led us to Nursefinders, one of the largest and most highly-regarded healthcare staffing companies in the U.S.”

CEO Robert E. Livonius and Nursefinders’ existing management team will remain with the company after the acquisition. Livonius, who joined Nursefinders in July 2003, spent twelve years at Spherion where he served as COO and headed Interim Healthcare, a leading nurse staffing and home healthcare business, prior to its divestiture by Spherion in 1997.

Ray Marcy, who served as CEO of Spherion from 1991–2001 and CEO of Nursefinders from 1988–1990, will become the Executive Chairman of Nursefinders after the acquisition. Marcy said, “I could not be more excited about the opportunity to work with Bob Livonius once again and to support his efforts to continue to build upon Nursefinders’ thirty-year track record as one of the highest quality and most respected nurse staffing and home care businesses in the U.S. Nursefinders offers us the first of multiple opportunities we have been exploring, and will continue to explore, to build a leading specialty staffing company. The company has a great management team and has outperformed their peer group in a difficult environment over the last two years.”

Livonius said, “This transaction is an excellent fit for Nursefinders for several reasons. Ray Marcy’s expertise in this industry along with our history of working together for nearly a decade will result in a tremendous partnership. With Ray on board, we are continuing to reinforce one of the cornerstones of our culture—attracting and retaining the best talent in the industry. Also, Gryphon’s financial support and track record for acquiring platform companies provides us a new level of opportunity to pursue accelerated growth. Nursefinders is already on the leading edge of technology and vendor management solutions for health care staffing and disease state management in home care. This transaction will support our growth in these areas.”

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About Gryphon Investors

Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors focuses on leveraged acquisitions of, and growth investments in, middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. Having managed more than $1 billion of discretionary equity capital, Gryphon has an extensive track record of investing $25 to $75 million of its own capital in companies with sales ranging from $25 to $250 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, professional resources and significant financial and operational expertise. Visit www.gryphoninvestors.com for more information.

About Nursefinders

Since 1974, Nursefinders has placed more than 3.5 million nurses in more than 10 million shifts and 32 million home care visits. The total system-wide sales from 1974 to 2003 reached nearly $3.5 billion.  For more information about the company, visit www.nursefinders.com

Contacts

for Gryphon Investors

Owen Blicksilver

Owen Blicksilver Public Relations, Inc.
516-742-5950
OWEN@BLICKSILVERPR.COM

for Nursefinders

Michelle Jenkins

The LaChapelle Agency
817-283-4499
MJENKINS@LACHAPELLEAGENCY.COM