Health care company that owns St. Francis Hospital is being sold to private equity firm
The Tennessee company that acquired St. Francis Hospital nearly three years ago is in the process of being sold to a private equity firm, LifePoint Health confirmed Monday in a news release.
Apollo Global Management LLC plans to buy the hospital chain LifePoint Health Inc. in a $5.6 billion deal.
LifePoint, based in Brentwood, Tenn., completed its deal to purchase the financially troubled Columbus hospital on Dec. 31, 2015. St. Francis had operated as a nonprofit hospital since its founding in 1950. That changed when LifePoint, a for-profit corporation, bought St. Francis.
“There is no immediate impact on St. Francis Hospital,” said Michelle Augusty, vice president of communications for LifePoint Health. “We are committed to being an important part of this community. Following the merger, our central focal point will remain providing quality care, close to home for our communities.”
LifePoint assumed and paid off about $240 million in debt acquired by St. Francis as a term for the purchase.
LifePoint will be merged with RCCH HealthCare Partners, an Apollo-owned hospital company that runs 16 regional health-care systems in 12 states, according to its website. The combined company will operate under the LifePoint name, according to the news release.
The transaction is expected to be completed over the course of the next several months, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by LifePoint’s shareholders and receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, LifePoint said. The new company, unlike LifePoint, which is a public company traded on NASDAQ, will be a privately owned, according to the news release.
St. Francis Chief Executive Officer Dan Jones sees the move as “extremely positive.”
“The two organizations are aligned and share St. Francis’ commitment to ensuring that our community has access to high quality care, close to home,” Jones said in a prepared statement. “We are proud of our contributions to Columbus and our affiliation with LifePoint. After the merger closes, we believe we will be well positioned to meaningfully extend our mission of making communities healthier. The transaction should have no impact on the way patients access our hospital, physicians or other locations.”
LifePoint’s Chief Executive Officer William Carpenter will stay on to help lead the company, multiple agencies have reported. Carpenter owned 484,297 shares of LifePoint as of Feb. 28, according to a filing, representing 1.2 percent of the company’s stock, according to Bloomberg.
LifePoint owns and operates community hospitals, regional health systems, physician practices, outpatient centers, and post-acute facilities in 22 states. It is the sole community health-care provider in the majority of the non-urban communities it serves.
LifePoint’s stock closed at $64.90 on Monday. It was up $17, or more than 35 percent.
Apollo, an international firm, has assets under management of approximately $247 billion as of the end of March in credit, private equity, and real assets funds invested across a core group of nine industries where Apollo has considerable knowledge and resources.
This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 11:12 AM.