Houlihan Lokey Advises The Planet Group

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that The Planet Group (Planet) will be merging with ProPharma Group (ProPharma), a portfolio company of Odyssey Investment Partners (Odyssey). In connection with the transaction, MidOcean Partners (MidOcean) exited its investment in the company. The transaction closed on May 26, 2021.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Planet provides high-value outsourced global workforce solutions and consulting services to Fortune 500 and other top companies across several fast-growth sectors. Planet’s family of nine entities was built to address the professional services needs of leading companies in the life sciences, diversified energy, engineering, financial, healthcare, technology, and digital marketing sectors. Planet connects clients with talent, thereby strengthening the employer-employee dynamic and creating enduring, valuable relationships.

MidOcean Partners is a premier U.S. middle-market private equity firm focused on the business services and consumer sectors and is a longtime investor in the human capital management (HCM) industry. Within HCM, MidOcean focuses on markets with clear secular growth trends, such as pharmaceutical, information technology, engineering, and healthcare.

ProPharma Group is the leading global, independent, single-source provider of outsourced regulatory, compliance, pharmacovigilance, and medical information services serving pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Founded in 2001, ProPharma Group has more than 1,300 colleagues worldwide providing a comprehensive portfolio of regulatory and compliance solutions to help solve complex challenges in a dynamic regulatory environment.

Odyssey Investment Partners, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is a leading private equity investment firm with more than a 25-year history of partnering with skilled managers to transform middle-market companies into more efficient and diversified businesses with strong growth profiles. Odyssey makes majority-controlled investments in industries with a long-term positive outlook and favorable secular trends.

Houlihan Lokey served as the financial advisor to The Planet Group and MidOcean Partners.

Houlihan Lokey’s Human Capital Management team is among the most active M&A advisors in the market, having closed 11 transactions in the past 24 months. This most recent transaction further strengthens Houlihan Lokey’s leadership in the business services universe and highlights continued momentum and leadership in the HCM sector, which includes staffing, recruitment, VMS, MSP, RPO, talent management, and PEO.