Blackstone to Acquire Team Health for About $3.2 Billion

Team Health Holdings Inc. said Monday the company has reached a deal to sell itself to a group of investors led by private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP for about $3.2 billion.

The deal to take Team Health private values it at $43.50 a share, which is a 33% premium to the stock's closing price on Oct. 3, before The Wall Street Journal reported that negotiations were under way. Shares of Team Health jumped 15% to $42.40 in premarket trading.

The companies valued the deal at $6.1 billion; announced deal values often include debt or other factors. Team Health had $2.4 billion in debt earlier this month, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The deal requires the approval of stockholders and regulatory authorities. The transaction includes a 40-day "go-shop" period, during which Team Health can seek other offers.

Team Health, based in Knoxville, Tenn., offers outsourced health-care services, such as emergency care, hospital medicine and anesthesiology, according to its website.

Last year, AmSurg Corp. made an unsolicited approach to combine with Team Health but withdrew its offer after Team Health said it was too low. At the time, the cash-and-stock offer valued Team Health at around $5 billion.

Consolidation waves have swept through the hospital and health-insurance industries, as part of a broader surge in deal-making in the health-care and other sectors of the economy in recent years.

Health-care services has been a particularly busy area. In August, patient-survey company Press Ganey Holdings Inc. agreed to sell itself to Swedish private-equity firm EQT for $2.4 billion. In June, health-care giant McKesson Corp. said it would combine most of its technology segment with the bulk of Change Healthcare Holdings Inc., which is majority owned by Blackstone.

Team Health has been privately held previously. It was owned by various private-equity firms for a decade, including Blackstone, which bought the company for $1 billion in 2005 from a group of investors and then took it public in 2009.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 31, 2016 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT)

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