HCA prices upcoming IPO [1]
Hospital industry mammoth HCA today said it will seek up to $30 for shares of its common stock in its upcoming initial public offering.
According to an amended registration filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning, the hospital operator said it plans to offer a maximum of 142.6 million shares at $27 to $30 a pop, which could raise nearly $4.3 billion.
The Nashville-based hospital giant first registered for the IPO — which will be the third in the company’s history — last May, saying it could raise up to $4.6 billion [2]. After reorganizing the company, HCA re-filed for the offering in December as HCA Holdings Inc.
According to the S-1/A, available here [3], HCA itself will sell 87.7 million shares, and a number of its stockholders — including former CEO Jack Bovender and the private-equity consortium that took the company private in a $33 billion leveraged buyout in 2006 — will offer 36.2 million shares. If the offering is oversubscribed, the underwriters have the option to sell another 18.6 million shares.
Selling the base 124 million shares at the mid-point price of $28.50 will bring in $2.4 billion.
Today’s filing sets in motion a long-anticipated industry event. For the past two years, HCA’s peers, industry analysts and investors have awaited the company’s return to the public markets, expecting the IPO to draw investors to the broader hospital sector and boost the group, which includes locals LifePoint Hospitals and Community Health Systems.
HCA operates 164 hospitals and 106 freestanding surgery centers across the U.S. and England. The company recently reported 2010 earnings of $1.2 billion on revenues of nearly $31 billion.
It plans to use the proceeds of the offering to pay down its debt and for general corporate purposes. As of Dec. 31, the company’s total indebtedness was $28.2 billion.
When its shares hit the New York Stock Exchange, they will trade under the ticker symbol 'HCA.'
- Area Stocks [4]
- Davidson County, Tenn. [5]
- Nashville [6]
- Community Health Systems Inc. [7]
- HCA Holdings Inc. [8]
- HCA Inc. [9]
- LifePoint Hospitals Inc. [10]
- Jack O. Bovender Jr. [11]
- Health Care [12]
- Hospital management: general acute-care [13]
- Initial public offerings [14]