Houlihan Lokey Advises Colibri

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the placement of perpetual preferred equity and convertible preferred equity to support Colibri Group (Colibri), a portfolio company of Gridiron Capital, LLC (Gridiron), in its acquisition of TRC Healthcare (TRC). The transaction closed on November 20, 2023. Houlihan Lokey served as buyside advisor and exclusive placement agent to Colibri.

Headquartered in St. Louis, Colibri is a professional education company with leading brands that provide learning solutions to licensed professionals. Colibri is building the future of professional education. Today, millions of licensed professionals start and advance their careers through the company’s online and in-person learning solutions for licensing, continuing education, test preparation, and professional development. The company provides a holistic learning experience for students and professionals to achieve more and thrive throughout their careers in real estate, financial services, teacher education, healthcare, valuation, and property services, among other professions. Colibri is the gold standard in professional education and serves millions of individual and business customers through its flexible, online, and in-person solutions.

With the addition of TRC, Colibri adds leading capabilities for pharmacists, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare practitioners to its portfolio of professional education services. Headquartered in Denver, TRC is a premier source of lifelong learning solutions for healthcare professionals providing unbiased training, continuing education, clinical simulations, and resources so clinicians can provide the highest-quality care to their patients and improve outcomes. TRC serves more than 1 million healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, physicians, and nurses. Further, TRC provides enterprise subscriptions to nearly every national pharmacy chain, many of the largest, most prominent hospitals in the U.S., and the Veterans Administration.

Based in New Canaan, Connecticut, Gridiron is an investment firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs, and management teams and creating value by building middle-market companies into industry leaders in branded consumer, B2B and B2C services, and niche industrial segments in the U.S. and Canada. Gridiron helps transform growing companies by winning together through hard work, partnerships grounded in shared values, and a unique culture that comes from hands-on experience building and running businesses. As a team led by former operators and entrepreneurs, Gridiron knows what it takes to run successful businesses daily.

Houlihan Lokey served as the buyside advisor and exclusive placement agent to Colibri, assisting the company in arranging, structuring, and negotiating the financing. This transaction highlights the team’s expertise and continued leadership in the professional learning sector, marking the team’s 14th transaction since the beginning of 2021. Houlihan Lokey secured a highly attractive financing solution in an expedited time frame to meet the demands of TRC’s sellside M&A process.