Advent Health IPO raises bad memories

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There's a new healthcare roll-up by the name of Advent Health that's looking to raise $21 million at $1 per share from investors via an initial public offer that opened last Monday.

Advent Health's strategy is to put the $21 million raising towards the acquisition cost of 12 healthcare practices, before the group hits the ASX boards on July 16, if all goes to plan.

One of Advent Health's directors is Bryce Wedemeyer, the former chief executive of failed smash repairs roll-up Automotive Solutions Group (ASG). It hit the ASX boards in December 2016, under a prior chief executive, after also offering shares to IPO investors at $1 while boasting of its potential to grow via acquisitions.

Less than a year later and after a wretched run of bad news, ASG was taken over by larger smash repair rival AMA Group at a whopping 65 per cent discount to the $1 per share IPO price .

IPO investors were left high and dry after a number of ASG's acquisitions underperformed and management threatened legal action against those it fell out with.

Wedemeyer took on the ASG chief executive role in May 2017, having previously been a director of the failed roll-up. Wedermeyer's career history is detailed in Advent Health's prospectus as having a prior role as an ASX director before leading a turnaround team and dealing with an on-market takeover. It doesn't disclose this was at the ASG disaster.

There's more. Advent Health's chairman is Lou Panaccio, who also chaired Azure Health Technologies, which delisted on May 1 after its initial public offer raising failed to meet ASX listing rules requiring at least 300 shareholders hold $2000 or more of shares .

No mention of that failure in Panaccio's glowing biography in Advent Health's IPO prospectus. The said biography reveals Panaccio is currently on the board of Sonic Healthcare, among other ASX-listed companies. Panaccio is also the chairman of ASX-listed Avita Group.

Still, the performance of the Advent IPO and its roll-up business model could be one to watch.