Aspen Merges with CRC/Bain Capital

[Deborah]

CRC Health Group to Acquire Aspen Education, Leading Provider of Treatment to Struggling Adolescents and Young Adults
Friday September 29, 9:27 am ET

CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Barry Karlin, Chairman & CEO of CRC Health Group, the nation's largest chemical dependency and related behavioral health organization, today announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement to acquire Aspen Education Group, the foremost provider of educational assistance to struggling young people and their families. Terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in mid-November, were not disclosed.

"The merger of these two like-minded companies will create a synergy of treatment and educational options that is unprecedented," said Karlin, "CRC and Aspen are both leaders in our respective fields, and together we can offer families of adolescents and young adults a wider and more comprehensive range of services with greater depth of program expertise."

"Both CRC and Aspen have been highly successful in helping individuals and families reclaim their lives," stated Elliot Sainer, CEO and co-founder of Aspen Education Group. "We will benefit from the collective synergy that comes from combining two dynamic organizations. At the same time, Aspen will be able to take advantage of CRC's world-class research and technology as well as their well-established expertise in the areas of substance abuse and other addictive behaviors."

Headquartered in Cerritos, California, Aspen will be established as a separate division of CRC Health Group. Sainer, who has 30 years of experience as a leader in education and behavioralhealthcare, will continue as President of the Aspen Education Group Division, and is expected to join the Board of Directors of CRC.

"Both programs offer cultures of treatment excellence as their transcendent value," added Dr. Karlin. "Together we can build on our joint vision: to create a world-class organization that sets the standard of excellence in treatment and education for adolescents in need." Sainer continued, "I have every confidence that CRC is the best and right partner for Aspen, as our combined resources will permit us to assist even more families who are in need of the educational and treatment services that we provide."

This merger agreement follows in the wake of the February 2006 sale of CRC Health Group to Bain Capital, a leading global private equity firm. "We have been extremely pleased with the performance of CRC, and believe the marriage of these highly complementary organizations creates a powerful presence in behavioral health with strong continued growth prospects," said John Connaughton, a Managing Director at Bain Capital. "We also see significant potential to leverage customer bases, business development activities, clinical operations, and support functions to provide a broader range of services while enhancing the effectiveness of care delivery and customer service."

About Aspen Education Group

Aspen Education Group is recognized nationwide as the leading private sector provider of education programs for struggling or under-achieving adolescents and young adults. With over 30 programs in 12 states, Aspen provides to students and families a comprehensive range of therapeutic interventions, and in 2005 provided assistance to over 4,000 families from every State in the US plus 16 foreign countries. These include: therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment facilities, wilderness therapy programs, summer camps, and the nation's first residential school for pediatric obesity. Aspen Education Group, headquartered in Cerritos, California, has been featured by leading news and television organizations including: US News and World Report, USA Today, People Magazine, NY Times, Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, and the syndicated TV program "Dr. Phil.," Aspen is currently privately- held with their principal shareholders including the well-known private equity firms, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Warburg Pincus & Sprout Group.

For further information visit Aspen's website: http://www.aspeneducation.com.

About CRC Health Group

CRC Health Group has set the standard of excellence as the nation's leading provider of chemical dependency and related behavioral health services. CRC treats more than 24,000 clients every day in more than 100 facilities across 23 states. The company offers a continuum of services tailored to the needs of the individual client no matter where they are in the life-cycle of their disease. These include detoxification, residential, day treatment, intensive outpatient, extended living, and continuing care services. CRC Health also operates nation-wide Eating Disorder programs, Co- occurring disorders and Dual Diagnosis facilities that specialize in emotional trauma as well as many addiction specialty tracks. Recent additions to the CRC family of companies include the highly prestigious Sierra Tucson program, Life Healing Center, Wellness Resource Center and Sober Living by the Sea. CRC Health also offers the nation's first full accredited online treatment program, eGetgoing.com. CRC has enjoyed since its inception in 1995 a wealth of exposure in the national television, radio & print media.

For further information visit our website http://www.crchealth.com

About Bain Capital

Bain Capital (http://www.baincapital.com) is a global private investment firm that manages several pools of capital including private equity, venture capital, public equity, and leveraged debt assets with more than $40 billion in assets under management. Since its inception in 1984, Bain Capital has made private equity investments and add-on acquisitions in over 230 companies around the world, including such healthcare companies as Warner Chilcott, Accellent, Wesley Jessen, Stericycle, Physio Control, Epoch, CRC Health Group and M/C Communications. Headquartered in Boston, Bain Capital has offices in New York, London, Munich, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060929/dcf010.html?.v=64

[Deborah]

A letter to Ed Cons from Elliot Sainer, CEO of Aspen Education Group regarding the merger with CRC Health Group.

(September 28, 2006) CERRITOS, CA

Dear Referring Professional,

Since our organization's beginnings in 1988 with the opening of Mount Bachelor Academy, it has been our desire to build a culture that would empower our staff and management to best achieve our vision of providing help and hope for youth, young adults, and their families. Because of your support and the excellent work of our staff, Aspen and our programs have enjoyed great success and positive outcomes in helping an increasing number of families.

In 1998, Aspen Education Group was formed with private capital partners who provided financial resources for Aspen to grow and pursue our vision. At that time, we served approximately 700 students. Seven years later, we assisted in 2005 over 4,000 young people and their families from every state in the country and 16 foreign countries.

Earlier this year, our Board of Directors asked me to identify possible financial or corporate partners that would, among other things, increase Aspen's ability to assist even more families in need. There was clearly a great deal of interest in Aspen Education Group, as evidenced by the number of firms who contacted us; perhaps some of them may have spoken to you during this process.

Today, I am pleased to announce that Aspen Education Group has signed a definitive Merger Agreement to join the CRC Health Group. We expect to finalize this Agreement before the end of November 2006.

I want to emphasize one key point: Aspen's programs will continue to operate in the same fashion as they do now. In fact, we expect that nothing will change in terms of the way you interact with Aspen and our programs. The Aspen team you have come to know will remain the same. Our senior management team that you work with strongly supports this merger and will remain in their current positions, as will the employees working in our schools and programs.

I will continue as President of Aspen Education Group and will become a member of the Board of Directors of the merged organization. In this dual capacity, I will continue to guide Aspen's programs and work to provide the necessary resources so that we can continue to offer the very best services to your clients. As a division of CRC Health Group, Aspen will look and feel the same as it does now; additionally, we will benefit from the collective synergy that comes from combining two dynamic organizations that are leaders in their respective areas.

CRC Health Group is a privately-owned corporation that operates many chemical dependency and related behavioral healthcare facilities across the country, including Sierra Tucson in Arizona. As CRC primarily focuses on adult services, Aspen's comprehensive network of schools and programs will add a complementary group of youth-oriented services to the enhanced organization. Aspen will be able to take advantage of CRC's world-class research and technology and their specific expertise in the areas of substance abuse and other addictive behaviors. In addition, CRC's six chemical dependency and dual diagnosis adolescent and young adult programs will provide to those clients in need of more intensive treatment a seamless care experience. I have been personally struck by how many similarities there are between our two organizations, and how our cultures are very similar. In particular, I wanted to highlight our shared approach to program management.

CRC and Aspen have long held the belief that day-to-day operations at the program level should be managed locally. At the same time, we provide each program with a variety of corporate resources that no one individual facility could financially support on its own. Empowering local leadership and encouraging personalized care is a very important part of the culture of both companies.

We have attached a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document, to provide you with some additional information.

I want to personally assure you that at the end of the day, nothing will change at our programs as a result of this merger. We remain committed to continuing to improve the services we offer to you and your clients. You should have every confidence that the students you refer to Aspen both during and after this merger will receive the same level of quality and support that you have come to expect from us. On behalf of all of Aspen's employees and families, we are grateful for your continued support.

With best wishes,
Elliot Sainer, CEO
Aspen Education Group

[Anonymous]

We've all been watching Aspen Education Group getting ready for this over the past 6 years . . . they've been buying up kid programs throughout the US so they could be the biggest, go public, get paid the big bucks for the buyout, etc.  I know Aspen's board is Jewish, and in cruising Bain, also saw Jewish connections.

CRC was bought out by Bain Capital in Oct 2005:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stor ... ily34.html

Bain Capital, one of the biggest global investors:
Established in 1984, Bain Capital is one of the world's leading private investment firms with approximately $40 billion in assets under management. Bain Capital's family of funds includes private equity, venture capital, public equity and leveraged debt assets. Our competitive advantage is grounded in a people-intensive, value-added investment approach that enables the firm to deliver industry-leading returns for its investors.
http://www.baincapital.com/pages.asp?b=1

Bain is right up there with the biggest global investors who, through their investments and shut downs, are creating the "New World", the "New West", the "New Economy", the "New Times":  Carlyle, Blackstone, Newbridge Capital (Bonderman, one I've written about for Utah ranchers' problems), and Goldman Sachs:
The bidding group includes KKR, Carlyle, Bain, Blackstone, Pacific Equity Partners, Newbridge Capital LLC, CVC Asia Pacific Ltd. and a unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said the people, who declined to be identified because the names of the bidders haven't been made public.
http://bain-capital-news.newslib.com/story/6563-104/

Bain, Gov Romney and Mormonism!  Romney was past chair of Bain Capital:
Romney's focus on China fuels political guessing
Romney's international experience includes heading the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, and his travels as chairman of Bain Capital, visiting China and other Asian nations several times, before he was elected.  Romney has no qualms about doing personal business with the alpha human rights abusing nation of the World.

External Source
Romney urges IOC to `build bridges' with Beijing bid
Salt Lake City's chief Olympic organizer made an extraordinary plea Wednesday for the IOC to consider Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Games on its technical merits and not be swayed by critics of China's human-rights policies.

Romney seems quite content to ignore China's human rights abuses here. Why does he think it's ok to have increased and closer relations with China despite it's human rights record, but anything Iranian is completely forbidden or wrong? Hypocrisy? Political manouvering?
http://www.atsnn.com/article/224643

Just a few quick pulls from Google.  Also, see my post here on Oct 2:  New West, New Economy, New World (half way down):
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=18173

Toni

[Anonymous]

Bain, Gov Romney and Mormonism! Romney was past chair of Bain Capital

I presumed that everyone knows that Romney is a Mormon (and could be our next Prez!)!!!

[Deborah]

Thanks for adding that piece Toni. It was next on my list of things to do.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for adding that piece Toni. It was next on my list of things to do.

And, thanks to your posted article.  I'd heard of the merger with CRC, but wasn't aware of the Bain connection, and that's what is really interesting, doncha think?

I barely spent any time looking, and I should spend some more 'cause my nose says I'm just at the beginning of the trail!

[hurleygurley]

Deborah I left you a message in your box! Toni, do you remember me? I've just started digging in...  I had to take a break but did a tremendous amount of research some months ago. Urgently need some help re: this topic. Can you leave me a private message? I may have have your email from last year, if you are the same "Toni" and will try to get hold of you there. If you remember me, I'm probably on your email list. You had been on my group send list.

hg

boy I wish I'd jumped back in a month ago!

[Anonymous]

Deborah I left you a message in your box! Toni, do you remember me? I've just started digging in...  I had to take a break but did a tremendous amount of research some months ago. Urgently need some help re: this topic. Can you leave me a private message? I may have have your email from last year, if you are the same "Toni" and will try to get hold of you there. If you remember me, I'm probably on your email list. You had been on my group send list.

hg

boy I wish I'd jumped back in a month ago!

I do remember you, but I've lost my login info for this forum and can't send you a message.  I'll see if I can get it today.

[Anonymous]

just in case anyone is interested, the merger is not yet a done deal. it's in something like escrow, and is expected to be finalized within a few weeks.