U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez approved the sale of three Dallas-based Steward Health Care hospitals in Florida to Orlando (Fla.) Health for $439.42 million in cash ina Sept. 10 court hearing.
"This is another step in the right direction," Mr. Lopez said. "This is a good day for Steward."
The purchase includes Rockledge (Fla.) Regional Medical Center, Melbourne (Fla.) Regional Medical Center, Sebastian (Fla.) River Medical Center and some of Steward Medical Group's practices in northern Florida. The assets are also known as the Space Coast Hospitals.
Orlando Health entered into a binding asset purchase agreement with Steward on Aug. 14 for the hospitals, which designated the Florida health system as a stalking horse bid, meaning that its bid could have been subject to higher or better-qualified bids received by Aug. 26.
On Aug. 29, Steward, which sought Chapter 11 protection May 6, shared that it had designated Orlando Health as the successful for its Florida hospitals.
The sale approval comes as Steward received approval from Mr. Lopez to sell six of its Massachusetts hospitals on Sept. 4.