Inside the World of Selling to a DSO, with Chip Fichtner of Large Practice Sales

Chip Fichtner is the founder of Large Practice Sales (LPS), a firm that specializes in partnering with large dental practices as they look to sell to DSOs. You may recognize him from the flyers and newsletters that his company mails out to private practices. Chip discusses how his company is able to achieve the highest EBITDA multiples by bidding practices to multiple DSOs to find the right fit. He also talks about "invisible" DSOs that allow the owner to retain full autonomy of the practice while still being able to cash out on a portion of practice equity. Chip likes packaging these deals as a "dental trifecta" to include pediatric dentists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons in the same geographic area to make for higher offers from DSOs. Some other questions I ask Chip:

- How do pediatric dentists obtain the highest value for their practices?
- Where is all this private equity money coming from?
- As part of these buyouts, we often see DSOs offer shares of equity in the parent company. Is there ever a concern about the value and solvency of these shares?
- How valuable are good pediatric offices, and what multiples are you typically seeing?
- Are DSO buyouts here to stay? Or is this a short-term process that will likely end in the future?

Chip can be contacted at https://largepracticesales.com/