May Day! Hospital Mega-Mergers Ahead

May Day! Hospital Mega-Mergers Ahead

Hospital merger and acquisition activity took a breather in the first quarter of this year. The 19 deals announced then represented a 17% decrease compared with the 23 deals announced in the fourth quarter of 2016, and a 30% decrease year over year. Readers who saw headlines in April regarding a rush of hospital mergers in the first quarter, according to data published by Kaufman Hall, should know our differing results are due to methodology. We do not report hospital mergers or acquisitions when the announcement involves signing a letter of intent, when many deals fall apart soon after. Our data derives from the more solid step in the process, when both entities have reached a definitive... Read More »

Health Care Deals Slide in April 2017

April usually doesn’t feel like February, at least, weather-wise. As far as healthcare mergers and acquisitions go, however, deal volume in April 2017 (103 deals) feels a lot like February’s deal volume (102). The chart below shows the clear winners and losers in April 2017. Deal volume was down 29% compared with the previous month (March, 145 deals), and slid 12% compared with the year before (April 2016, 141 deals). Healthcare services deal volume accounted for just 50% of April’s preliminary total. The services sectors typically account for higher percentages than the technology sectors (although that trend is reversed when it comes to dollar volume). The services side... Read More »

Q1:17 Hospital Deals Dwindle

Mergers and acquisitions in the Hospital sector suffered in the first quarter of 2017, as President Trump took office and the Republican-led Congress vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Hospitals and health systems felt the uncertainty as deal volume slipped 17% to 19 transactions versus the previous quarter, and dropped 30% year over year. This quarter’s deal volume represents 23% of the 81 hospital transactions announced in the previous 12 months. (N.B.: We record hospital deals when they reach the definitive agreement stage, not when a letter of intent is signed.) Source: HealthCareMandA.com, April 2017 Four transactions disclosed a price, for a combined total of only... Read More »
Air Methods Corp. Flies to American Securities

Air Methods Corp. Flies to American Securities

Air Methods Corporation (NASDAQ: AIRM), a global air medical transportation company, has been on the acquisition trail since the late 1990s, announcing 12 deals targeting smaller air ambulance operators. Now it’s a takeover target itself, thanks to activist shareholder Voce Capital Management LLC. Voce Capital, and its managing director J. Daniel Plants, had been calling for Air Methods management to put the company on the block as far back as 2015. In February 2017, the investment firm launched a fight for four board seats and publicly criticized AIRM’s financial returns and “a multi-year syndrome of operational, strategic and governance failures.” Air Methods... Read More »

Hospital Transactions, 2012 to 2016

Hospital merger and acquisition activity softened in 2016, as more transactions came in the form of joint operating ventures, affiliations or partnerships rather than long-term financial commitments. These deals represent safer financial territory than an outright commitment to a struggling facility. M&A transactions among larger hospitals and health systems are shifting to a more strategic focus, to gain market share, cost efficiencies and greater negotiating power. Deals involving small, standalone hospitals, however, are still driven largely by financial pressures. Health systems are also acquiring more pre- and post-acute care facilities and services, as well as physician medical... Read More »
Strategic vs. Financial Healthcare Buyers in 2016

Strategic vs. Financial Healthcare Buyers in 2016

Every spring, we publish myraid statistics on the healthcare services deals announced the year before, in the form of The Health Care Services Acquisition Report. This year’s 23rd edition, which will available in late March, has this examination of what financial buyers targeted in 2016. Strategic buyers continued to dominate the health care services M&A market in 2016, as they have in the past. Their 683 deals made up 73% of the year’s deal volume. The $45.7 billion spent accounted for 63% of the combined total of $72 billion. A total of 259 deals, or 27% of the services deal volume in 2016, were carried out by financial buyers, such as private equity firms and real estate... Read More »