Fifth Street Management announced that it has provided a one-stop financing facility for First Choice Emergency Room, the nation's largest and oldest freestanding emergency room system. Fifth Street Finance Corp. funded a $75 million term loan at close, which will be utilized to support First Choice ER's continued growth.
The First Choice ER deal represents Fifth Street's fourth transaction in the last 12 months with Sterling Partners, a private equity firm with more than $5 billion in assets under management and a track record for growing innovative companies. The transaction also epitomizes the increased deal flow Fifth Street is seeing overall, thanks in part to the platform's enhanced ability to provide custom-tailored financing solutions up to $500 million.
"First Choice ER provides communities with much needed additional access to emergency care and ranks in the top one percentile of patient care nationally, according to patient feedback gathered by Press Ganey," said Sterling Partners Managing Director Danny Rosenberg, adding, "As First Choice ER further solidifies its leadership position as the oldest and largest freestanding emergency room system, Fifth Street delivers everything we want in a lending partner—agility, dependability and balance sheet strength."
"Multiple credit lines, including the recent upsizing of FSC's ING-led credit facility, and a robust capital markets presence have strengthened our ability to offer sponsors substantial commitment sizes," noted Fifth Street's Chief Executive Officer, Leonard Tannenbaum.
Sunny Khorana, a partner of Fifth Street, added, "This facility represents an exciting transaction for the Fifth Street platform and our growing relationship with Sterling Partners. For us, it always has been—and always will be—about providing dynamic financing solutions to our private equity sponsors."
With over $3 billion in assets under management, Fifth Street Management LLC is an alternative asset manager and the SEC-registered investment adviser of two publicly-traded business development companies, Fifth Street Finance Corp. and Fifth Street Senior Floating Rate Corp.