Selling a nursing or clinical services business
Buyers of nursing businesses are generally paying for something they can't build quickly themselves, which is a clinical workforce that reliably turns up and the governance that makes it safe to deploy. The question in most sales is how much of the business is that underlying capability and how much depends on agency pricing that governments are now working to contain.
Two kinds of revenue
Contracted clinical work, such as in-home nursing and ongoing services to aged care and disability providers, tends to repeat and is valued accordingly. Agency placement is different, because much of it grew during the shortages of 2021 to 2023, and the public health systems that buy it are now putting tighter controls on how agencies are engaged and paid.
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In NSW, for example, public hospitals have to engage agencies through the Whole of Health Nursing Agency Panel at fixed commission rates, an individual nurse's placement is capped at 90 days before direct engagement has to be considered, and agencies can't offer nurses bonuses or incentive payments outside the award. Aged care operators, with their own obligations to have registered nurses on site around the clock, have good reason to move shifts across to permanent staff where they can. Buyers will separate these two kinds of revenue and value them differently, and it helps if your own reporting does the same.
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What buyers value and what they discount
Buyers will pay more for a broad base of permanent and regular casual staff, contracts that don't depend on a single client, clinical governance that holds up under the new aged care and disability settings, and a home care or disability service line sitting alongside the staffing business. They'll be more cautious about earnings that peaked during the shortage, client relationships that are held personally by the founder, contractor arrangements that could be treated as employment, and a heavy reliance on public hospital work. Where the buyer and seller see the future earnings differently, an earn-out is often how the gap is bridged.
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Who is buying
Private equity backed platforms have been the most active buyers. Lumia Care, formed with Pemba Capital in 2022, added Healthcare HQ and Pop-Up Health in 2024, and Healthcare Australia, owned by Crescent Capital, bought My Care Solution in South Australia in 2024 in a process the vendor said attracted seven other interested parties.
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Preparing in the year before a sale
A buyer will want to see revenue broken down by client type and by contract versus placement, with the trend going back to 2022, so it's worth getting that reporting in place early. It also helps to reduce reliance on your largest client and on yourself, to review any contractor arrangements, and to make sure your approach to incident management, credentialing and supervision is written down rather than held in people's heads.
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How we work with nursing businesses
We help you present the durable part of the business's earnings to buyers, run the process, and support the transition after completion.
If you operate in the sector and are considering a transaction, start with a conversation.