Houlihan Lokey Advises Summit Spine & Joint Centers
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Summit Spine & Joint Centers (Summit), a portfolio company of MSouth Equity Partners (MSouth), has been acquired by Wellspring Capital Management (Wellspring). Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Summit. The transaction closed on March 25, 2025.
Summit is a leading provider of minimally invasive spine services in the southeastern U.S. Headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Summit manages and operates 17 ambulatory surgery centers and 44 clinics across Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Summit specializes in the precise diagnosis and treatment of neck and back discomfort and various other spine and musculoskeletal conditions, enabled by its highly skilled physicians and state-of-the-art equipment. The company was founded in 2014 to provide patients with high-quality, patient-focused comprehensive treatments and has successfully expanded its presence over the past decade primarily through de novo location development.
MSouth is an investment firm that provides equity capital and expertise to support management teams in acquisitions and recapitalizations of lower-middle-market companies, primarily in the South, with more than $2.2 billion of capital raised across four funds. MSouth is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wellspring is a leading private equity firm headquartered in New York. Since its founding in 1995, Wellspring has raised more than $6.1 billion of initial capital commitments through over 10 private equity funds. In total, Wellspring’s current portfolio companies employ nearly 60,000 people around the world and generate aggregate revenues in excess of $4.5 billion. Over the past 25 years, Wellspring has invested in more than 50 platform investments across various segments of the U.S. and global economies. Wellspring’s objective is to bring partnership, experience, and value creation to each investment. By teaming up with strong management, Wellspring seeks to unlock underlying value and pursue new growth opportunities through strategic initiatives, operating improvements, and add-on acquisitions. The firm functions as a strategic partner, providing management teams with top-line support, M&A experience, financial expertise, and access to resources.
This transaction further strengthens Houlihan Lokey’s leadership position in physician services and multi-site healthcare sectors, having closed four physician services and 12 multi-site transactions in the past 12 months. This transaction also highlights Houlihan Lokey’s continued leadership in minimally invasive spine and pain, having now advised on three of the most significant deals in the space. Houlihan Lokey’s Healthcare Group is among the largest dedicated healthcare investment banking groups in the country. In 2024, the group closed 35 transactions and was ranked by LSEG (formerly Refinitiv) as the No. 1 advisor for global healthcare M&A transactions under $1 billion.
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