Amedisys Shares Rise as UnitedHealth Looks to Upend Option Care Deal
06 June 2023 - 12:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
Amedisys shares jumped nearly 15% on Monday after the
healthcare-services provider received an unsolicited, $3.26 billion
takeover proposal from UnitedHealth Group's Optum health-services
arm.
Optum said it is offering $100 a share in cash for Amedisys in a
bid that could scuttle a prior agreement by Option Care Health to
acquire Amedisys in an all-stock transaction.
Option Care in early May said it would issue 3.0213 shares,
worth $99.07 when the deal was announced, for each share of
Amedisys. But shares of Option Care have fallen since then,
bringing the value of the transaction to $86.29 a share at the
close of trading Friday.
Optum's offer, meanwhile, represents a 26% premium to Friday's
closing price of $79.47 for Amedisys and a 27% premium to the Baton
Rouge, La., company's closing price of $78.63 on May 3, before the
Option Care deal was announced.
Amedisys said its board determined that the Optum proposal could
reasonably be expected to result in an superior deal under the
terms of its agreement with Option Care, and that it has begun
exploratory talks with its new suitor.
Optum said its proposal has no financing contingency, and that
it is confident it can secure regulatory approval for a deal.
Option Care, for its part, said its planned union with Amedisys
offers a high degree of certainty in obtaining regulatory clearance
due to the complementary nature of their businesses, and that the
deal would allow shareholders of both companies to participate in
the upside of the combined organization.
Shares of Amedisys were recently up nearly 15% to $91.09 in
early trading Monday, while shares of Option Care tacked on 7.5% to
$30.69 and shares of UnitedHealth edged up 0.1% to $499.82.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 05, 2023 10:29 ET (14:29 GMT)
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