March Added One Mega-Deal, and Saw Another One Halted

After a busy M&A month in February, with 125 deals reported, March didn’t disappoint. Preliminary results show deal volume equaled the previous month’s total. The figures look good, in the face of the recent stock market swings, the Trump administration’s talk of trade wars and cancelling trade deals. But a look back to March 2017 shows this month’s deal volume is down 19% compared with the 155 deals logged then. And that wase in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Check out the April issue of Health Care M&A News for the deal volume and value charts, by sector. We’re not saying this year’s healthcare market is lacking in... Read More »
China’s iKang Healthcare Goes Private

China’s iKang Healthcare Goes Private

iKang Healthcare Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: KANG) has posted a long string of acquisitions in recent years, as the Chinese healthcare company expanded its reach into that country’s largest cities. As of March 26, 2018, iKang owned and operated a network of 110 medical centers in 33 cities in China. iKang is one of China’s largest providers of private preventivie healthcare. Its customer base is comprised primarily of corporate clients who contract with iKang to deliver medical examination services to their employees and clients, and receive those services at pre-agreed rates. The company also directly markets its services to individual customers. At the end of 2017, iKang served a... Read More »
Eastern Niagara to Merge with Kaleida Health

Eastern Niagara to Merge with Kaleida Health

This is a story that will be familiar to all not-for-profit hospital deal watchers. In April 2016, Eastern Niagara Health and Kaleida Health, two Niagara Frontier healthcare systems, announced their affiliation, with Lockport, New York-based Eastern Niagara tapping into Buffalo-based Kaleida Health’s network. Eastern Niagara Health operates the 136-bed Eastern New York Hospital in Lockport, an outpatient/urgent care facility in Newfane, and an ambulatory surgery/primary care practice in Lockport. Kaleida Health is the largest not-for-profit health system in western New York, serving eight counties with four hospitals, two long-term care facilities and more than 80 outpatient clinics.... Read More »
Maryvale Hospital Opens Again in Phoenix

Maryvale Hospital Opens Again in Phoenix

Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) divested five hospitals in 2017, collecting at least $895 million on two of the deals. The goal is to pay down its $14.9 billion in debt (as of the most recent quarter). What hasn’t been made as public are the hospitals it is shuttering in various markets. Abrazo Maryvale Hospital, a 228-bed acute care facility in the western part of Phoenix, Arizona, was one of those Tenet closed in December 2017, citing a decline in patient demand. The hospital was run through the Abrazo Community Health Network, and handled about 43,000 emergency room visits annually. The Abrazo network had reduced services at the Maryvale campus in recent years, closing its birthing... Read More »
Hospital Deals in 2018: 27% for Critical Access Hospitals

Hospital Deals in 2018: 27% for Critical Access Hospitals

2018 is still quite young, as we are writing in mid-February. Fifteen hospital mergers or acquisitions have reached the definitive agreement stage, which is when we consider them far enough along to include in our DealSearchOnline.com database. (If the deal falls apart later in due diligence or other process, it’s removed from the data.) Of the 15 hospital deals announced so far, four (27%) were for stand-alone critical access hospitals (CAHs). That percentage will change, of course, as the year goes on. But consider 2017. Of the 74 U.S. hospital transactions announced, seven (9%) targeted a critical access hospital. For all the discussion of rural and community hospitals seeking... Read More »
Partners and Care New England Move Forward, Slowly

Partners and Care New England Move Forward, Slowly

It’s not easy getting from the letter-of-intent stage, through due diligence, to a definitive agreement. Many hospitals that announce an LOI agreement go into due diligence and don’t end up on the altar after all. That seemed to be the fate of the LOI announced last April (2017) between Boston-based Partners HealthCare System and Providence, Rhode Island-based Care New England (CNE). The two not-for-profit systems had held on-again, off-again talks previously, and now both organizations’ boards were willing to give a merger a go. CNE includes Kent Hospital (323 beds), Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island (247 beds), the VNA of Care New England, Butler Hospital, an... Read More »