DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) began a tender offer to purchase as much as $1 billion of senior notes that mature in 2014, part of its efforts to improve its financial flexibility.

The company has been trying to turn itself around following years of financial and legal trouble, cutting costs and conducting debt exchanges. Meanwhile, hospitals in general have been cutting back on capital spending and taking other measures to conserve cash as rising unemployment threatens to increase the ranks of the uninsured and consumers put off elective procedures.

Tenet earlier this month said it was holding up well amid the recession, but it remained cautious about the future.

The offer expires June 25 at 12 a.m. EDT. Notes tendered before 5 p.m. EDT June 11 will receive the notes' full face value plus and accrued and unpaid interest, while those tendered afterward will receive $970 per $1,000 of principal. The offer is contingent on at least $200 million in notes being tendered.

Shares were recently up to $3.24 in premarket trading. The stock has lost half of its value in the past seven months, though it has more than tripled since March.

-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2473; tess.stynes@dowjones.com