Alliance enters PET market with acquisition of Acclaim

Firm also plans for new ownership, recapitalization

Imaging services provider Alliance Imaging is diversifying its portfolio. The Anaheim, CA-based company has purchased Acclaim Medical, a Southern California-based mobile PET services provider. Terms were not released.

As rationale for the deal, Alliance executives pointed to recent approvals of reimbursement for PET scans for selected cancer detection procedures by the Health Care Financing Administration. The firm now believes PET is a commercially viable technology.

“PET is a cutting-edge modality, and we’re looking to expand our business,” said Michael Grismer, vice president and controller. “It’s a natural evolution.”

The two companies were already familiar with one another. In fact, Acclaim was started in January by Robert Waley-Cohen (SCAN 7/7/99), who cofounded Alliance in 1983.

Alliance will stick with Acclaim’s initial plan to focus on providing mobile, shared-user PET services, but in the future also plans to operate fixed-site systems and enter into joint ventures with medical institutions to provide PET services, according to the firm.

Alliance has secured its first PET scanner, an ECAT EXACT system from Siemens Medical Systems affiliate CTI. The company will soon begin providing PET services to Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, CA.

Just a few days prior to its acquisition of Acclaim, Alliance announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to pursue a recapitalization and a merger, in which Alliance’s parent company Apollo Management will sell the majority of its shares in Acclaim to an affiliate of venture-capital firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. As a result of the deal, approximately 95% of the fully diluted common stock of Alliance, excluding options and warrants, will be retired and the company will be taken private. KKR will own approximately 90% of the new company’s common stock, and the management of both Apollo and Alliance will retain approximately 10%.

Alliance’s debt will be retired as well. After payment of the debt, redemption of the outstanding preferred stock, and payment of transaction expenses, holders of the firm’s common stock will receive approximately $55 per share in cash.

Following the close of the transaction, senior management of Alliance, including CEO Richard Zehner and president Vincent Pino, will continue to manage the operations of Alliance in their current posts. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions and the obtaining of financing and necessary regulatory consents. Holders of a majority of Alliance’s shares have approved the transaction, according to Alliance.