Feeling Distressed? You’re Not Alone

Feeling Distressed? You’re Not Alone

For the past two years, the volume of healthcare deals has soared to new heights. Much of the growth has been powered by financial buyers, private equity firms in particular, piling into the healthcare services sectors. In 2018, a new record for annual deal volume was hit, now standing at 1,917. The services sectors accounted for 65% (1,242 deals), slightly higher than the typical 60% to 62%. Last year’s total deal tally now stands at 1,824 transactions, the second highest total ever recorded, and 70% of that comes from healthcare services deals. Why, then, have Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings among the services sectors spiked along with that activity? Since the second quarter of 2017, the... Read More »
St. Christopher’s Hospital Goes to Auction in Philly

St. Christopher’s Hospital Goes to Auction in Philly

Yet another hospital bankruptcy has led to an auction and a sale. This time it was St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 188-bed hospital is a healthcare outpost in north Philly and one of only two children’s hospitals in the city. In 2018 it and Hahnemann University Hospital were sold by Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) to California investment banker Joel Freedman, represented as American Academic Health Systems LLC (AAHS), for $170 million. Hahnemann’s financial troubles prompted American Academic to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection  on June 30 and led to that hospital’s closure in July 2019. St. Christopher’s... Read More »
U.S. Hospital M&A Trends, 1H 2019

U.S. Hospital M&A Trends, 1H 2019

It’s been a slow year for hospital mergers and acquisitions in the United States. In the first half of 2019, just 29 transactions have reached the definitive agreement stage, or actually closed. In the first half of 2018, 38 transactions made that cut. The targets are much smaller in 2019, too. A total of 4,991 beds changed hands in the first six months of this year, compared with 9,327 beds in the same period in 2018. Fourteen not-for-profit hospitals or systems (2,380 beds combined) were targets in 1H:19, and three of them were critical access hospitals which are regulated to just 25 beds. That’s not a stand-out trend, considering six critical access hospitals found new... Read More »