PLANO, TX – Shareholders of Triad Hospitals Inc. last month approved the company’s acquisition by Community Health Systems Inc.
Under terms of the merger agreement, Triad shareholders will receive $54 per share of Triad common stock.
Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health said it expects the transaction to close early in the third quarter of 2007, subject to approval by regulatory agencies and completion of closing conditions.
Cash to shareholders will total about $5.1 billion. Community Health also is assuming $1.7 billion in Triad debt, bringing the total value of the transaction to $6.8 billion.
When the deal was announced, Community Health said the merger would bring the number of facilities it operates to 130 in 28 states, with a total bed count of more than 18,700.
The acquisition of Triad’s 54 hospitals – including one under construction – will make Community Health the largest publicly traded hospital company in the nation. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Inc., which operates 172 facilities, was taken private in a leveraged buyout late last year.
Community Health was the winning bidder for Triad, which initially accepted a buyout offer from two private equity firms for $50.25 per share, or a total of $4.7 billion.
As of June 13, Community Health’s stock was trading at nearly $38 a share, up 14 percent from the low levels hit after the Triad acquisition was announced. A week later, the stock was selling for as much as $39.81 a share, within a few pennies of its high price for the previous 52 weeks.
On the day it announced results of the Triad shareholder vote, Community Health also announced that it intends to offer $3.37 billion in senior notes, to be issued in three series – floating rate senior notes due in 2015, senior notes due in 2015 and senior notes due in 2017. It did not detail the interest rate to be paid for the debt.
The company said the net proceeds from the note sale, along with other funds, will be used to complete the Triad acquisition.