U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. will buy DaVita Inc.’s physician group in a cash transaction for approximately $4.9B.
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DaVita Medical Group has approximately 280 clinics, 35 urgent-care centers and six outpatient surgery centers that operate in California, Washington and Florida. The acquisition will expand UnitedHealth's healthcare services platform throughout the U.S., allowing it to compete as a larger player in the medical services industry, the Wall Street Journal reports.
UnitedHealth's health-services arm, Optum, has been actively working to build a larger roster of clinics and medical centers; in January it acquired Surgical Care Affiliates Inc. for $2.3B, adding around 200 medical centers to its portfolio.
The takeover comes at a time of financial distress for DaVita, which recorded a net loss of $214M in Q3. The company will use the proceeds from the UnitedHealth transaction to pay off debt and for stock buybacks, among other purposes.
The pending transaction falls on the same week as CVS Health Corp.'s $69B Aetna Inc. buyout. The deal will solidify it as the second-largest company in the country in terms of revenue. CVS plans to leverage its retail footprint to create one-stop-shop healthcare clinics across the U.S. With a portfolio of 9,700 retail pharmacies and 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, called MinuteClinic, CVS is the largest retail pharmacy chain and retail clinic operator in the country.
The UnitedHealth Group deal is expected to close in 2018.
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