Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with United Surgical Partners International to create the largest provider of ambulatory surgery in the U.S.
Under the agreement, Tenet and USPI will combine their short-stay surgery and imaging center assets. Tenet will initially own 50.1 percent of the joint venture, with a path to full ownership of USPI over the next five years through a put/call structure, according to a news release.
Under the deal, Tenet will pay $425 million to the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and USPI shareholders. Tenet will also assume about $1.5 billion in USPI debt.
The joint venture will have ownership interests in 244 ambulatory surgery centers, 16 short-stay surgical hospitals and 20 imaging centers in 29 states. It will maintain the USPI brand, as well as USPI's innovative three-way partnership model with physicians and leading nonprofit health systems. The combined operations will have partnerships with 50 health systems and more than 4,000 physicians at the facility level.
In a statement, Tenet President and CEO Trevor Fetter said the partnership accelerates Tenet's and USPI's shared strategy to expand ambulatory service offerings to meet growing consumer demand for services that are provided in a lower cost, more convenient setting.
Tenet also has agreed to buy U.K. short-stay surgery center company Aspen Healthcare from Welsh Carson for about $215 million. Aspen Healthcare operates nine private hospitals and clinics in the U.K.
Both transactions are expected to close by the third quarter of 2015.
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