A clinic-group M&A director on what buyers really value, why owner-dependence and messy data cost you, and the prepare-early lesson dental learned that MSK hasn't yet.
“A lot of people think, 'I'm ready to retire, so I'm going to sell now,' and they lose a lot of the value they could have taken out if they had prepared for sale five years earlier.”— Oli Abrams
Oli Abrams is Director of M&A at Kinetiko Health, a group that partners with MSK clinics across physio, chiro, osteo and podiatry. He spent close to a decade in dental M&A at Dentex, later Portman Dentex, before moving to the less-consolidated MSK market, and runs partner onboarding from first contact through due diligence to completion.
He and Jared walk through what an acquirer actually looks for, starting with the who: the principal, the next generation of leadership, and the cultural fabric of the team, because that intangible value walks out the door if the owner does. Then the numbers: recurring versus new patients, payer mix and the stroke-of-the-pen risk of leaning too hard on insurance, and why margin in MSK is won by growing revenue on a stable cost base, not by the cost-cutting that gives corporates a bad name.
They get tactical on where clinics leak value, from first-visit and single-visit integrity to cancellation rebooking and who owns follow-up once the patient leaves the room, and close on the biggest lesson from Oli's cross-over: dental owners prepare for a sale years ahead and speak to peers who have sold, while MSK owners tend to leave value on the table, and the MSK habit worth copying is reducing reliance on the founder as the revenue engine.
Coherent gives private clinics one patient relationship engine, recovering revenue lost at enquiry, recall and billing.