Home health firm Amedisys gains on over $3 bln offer from UnitedHealth

Amedisys

05/06/2023 17:08

(Updates)
    ** Shares of healthcare-at-home firm Amedisys Inc  AMED.O 
up 13.7% at $90.50
    ** UnitedHealth Group  UNH.N  made a surprise $3.26 bln
all-cash offer to acquire Amedisys Inc  AMED.O , pitting itself
against healthcare company Option Care Health Inc  OPCH.O  set
to buy the home health and hospice care firm
    ** UNH, through its Optum unit, made an offer of $100 per
share in cash, representing a 26% premium to AMED's last closing
price, compared to the roughly $97.38 per share all-stock offer
made by OPCH last month  
    ** AMED's board has not yet determined whether Optum's offer
is superior to OPCH's deal and is currently in exploratory
discussions with the UnitedHealth unit 
    ** OPCH shares up 6.9% at $30.5 premarket
    ** Amedisys will have to pay $106 mln if it terminates deal
with Option Care which was expected to close in H2 of 2023
    ** Several analysts raised concerns that a UnitedHealth deal
would likely face scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission,
given UnitedHealth's home health presence 
    ** Including session's gain, AMED stock up 8.2% YTD

 (Reporting by Pratik Jain in Bengaluru)
 ((Pratik.Jain@thomsonreuters.com;))