Foley & Lardner LLP partner Hannah Zaitlin is quoted in the Behavioral Health Business article, “Is an IPO Worth It? What Good Exits in Behavioral Health Will Look Like in 2024,” offering insight on the present appetite for IPOs in the behavioral health market.
“It’s all about cash and getting more of it and getting more investors,” said Zaitlin. “I think some [investors] are going to want to recoup and get a return on their investment, and companies are going to want to get growth capital. An IPO is always an option, and a good one depending on where the company is at with its development.”
Zaitlin explained that while successful exits are highly subjective, key considerations include capital returns for investors and the platform, the impact on the company’s workforce, and increased access to behavioral health services.
“There’s cash available to be deployed, and there are behavioral health platforms that grew rapidly during the pandemic that have reached a stage where they need to make an exit or do some sort of strategic combination in order to continue growing and to continue to sustain themselves,” she added.
Zaitlin noted that IPOs do come with several trade-offs that should be considered. “Any health care company has to make compliance the top priority,” she said. “But that’s even more acute and probably even heavier when you are a public company and subject to that regulatory scrutiny all the time.”
