Houlihan Lokey Advises DECA Dental Holdings

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Deca Dental Holdings LLC (DECA), a portfolio company of Blue Sea Capital (Blue Sea) has received a strategic investment from funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities (NYSE:BX; Blackstone).

Based in Dallas, Texas, DECA is a clinician-founded and led organization that has been delivering high-quality, affordable dental care to patients since 2008. DECA has over 100 affiliated dental practices with a network of offices in Texas, Florida, and Washington. DECA’s culture is founded on a patient-centric model. The company is guided by its vision to be the premier provider of dental services under one roof while being the first choice for dentists and staff seeking a partner for growth, innovation, and learning.

Blue Sea is a private equity firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida, that invests in growth-oriented lower middle-market companies valued up to $250 million. The firm has more than $750 million in assets under management and invests across three industry verticals: aerospace and defense, healthcare, and industrial growth. Blue Sea’s strategy is to partner with talented managers and differentiated companies, typically as the first or second institutional investor, and deliver strategic and operational value-add that drives growth acceleration, industry outperformance, and business transformation.

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager and seeks to create positive economic impact and long-term value for investors, the companies they invest in, and the communities in which they work. Blackstone’s $684 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets, and secondary funds, all on a global basis.

This transaction further strengthens Houlihan Lokey’s leadership position in the dental sector, having advised on 11 closed transactions in the past 12 months, including the recapitalization of Canadian Orthodontics Partners (a portfolio company of Sheridan Capital Partners) by Pamlico Capital, the acquisition financing for Smile Doctors (a portfolio company of Linden Capital Partners), and the acquisition of National Dentex Labs by Cerberus Capital Management. Houlihan Lokey’s Healthcare Group is among the largest dedicated healthcare investment banking groups in the country. In 2020, the group closed 22 transactions and was ranked the No. 1 M&A advisor for U.S. healthcare transactions under $1 billion by Refinitiv.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to DECA and assisted in initiating, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on its behalf.