Blackstone Moves to Acquire Team Health Holdings

Team Health Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TMH) shares made a handy gain on Monday after the company announced that it will be acquired by Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX). Essentially, Team Health announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds affiliated with Blackstone. The transaction was unanimously approved by Team Health’s board of directors.

The transaction is valued at roughly $6.1 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone and its co-investors will acquire all the outstanding shares of TeamHealth common stock for $43.50 per share in cash. This represents a premium of approximately 33% over TeamHealth’s closing share price on October 3.

The acquisition agreement is still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. As per the agreement, there is also a “go-shop” period in which Team Health has 40-days to pursue other options.

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Leif Murphy, president and CEO of TeamHealth, commented:

We are pleased to reach this agreement with Blackstone, which maximizes value for all TeamHealth stockholders. We remain committed to delivering the highest quality patient care and supporting our affiliated clinicians, hospital and post-acute partners. Blackstone is focused on working closely with TeamHealth to achieve our strategic objectives and drive innovation and operational excellence in the context of the evolving U.S. healthcare marketplace. We continue to believe that TeamHealth is uniquely positioned to leverage our national scale and functional expertise to drive high quality patient care, operational efficiencies and physician satisfaction in hospital-based and post-acute settings.

Lynn Massingale, M.D., co-founder and executive chairman of TeamHealth, added:

Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms and will be a tremendous capital partner to help accelerate TeamHealth’s growth priorities and fund our long-term initiatives as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities. As a prior owner of TeamHealth, Blackstone knows TeamHealth and the U.S. healthcare industry well and will work with us to create value for all our stakeholders over the long-term. We are very proud of our team and believe this investment is a testament to the underlying strength of the organization and the thousands of skilled and dedicated clinicians who choose to be part of TeamHealth.

Shares of Team Health were trading up 16% at $42.70 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $45.31 and a 52-week trading range of $30.83 to $60.46.

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