(Bloomberg) -- Bain Capital and Parthenon Capital are in talks to sell a minority stake in Zelis in a transaction that could value the health-care technology company at about $17 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The private equity firms are considering selling a 20% to 25% stake in Zelis, according to the people. Zelis has received preliminary interest from health-insurers, a payments company, buyout firms and sovereign wealth funds, they said.
Bain and Parthenon have been weighing a range of options for Zelis, including an outright sale, initial public offering or bringing in new investors in a private transaction, Bloomberg News reported in January.
They’re now leaning toward a stake sale because Zelis is growing and they want to continue to benefit from that, one of the people said. Bain and Parthenon are being advised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Deliberations are ongoing, no final decisions have been made and plans could still change, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Spokespeople for Bain and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. A representative for Parthenon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, while spokespeople for JPMorgan and Zelis didn’t immediately provide comment.
Zelis operates a platform that’s been helping to digitize payments in health-care, where billions of dollars of spending is still disbursed using paper checks. The company works with hundreds of health payers to manage claims, negotiate with providers and save money.
In 2019, Bain invested in the merger of Parthenon-backed health-care payments technology companies Zelis Healthcare and RedCard Systems.
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