AmSurg Corp., the giant ambulatory surgery and physician-service company, is planning to raise as much as $516 million with a secondary offering of common shares to fund a spate of potential acquisitions and retire some debt.
The Nashville-based company filed plans Monday with regulators to offer 5.5 million common shares to investors, with a 30-day option for underwriters to purchase an additional 825,000 shares.
Assuming an offering price of $85.10, AmSurg would raise $448.9 million if the 5.5 million shares are sold and $516.3 million if the underwriter option is exercised. AmSurg's share price closed at $82.21 Monday.
AmSurg said it would use some of the proceeds to retire $276 million of revolving debt and for general business purposes. The rest could be used to fund a $500 million pipeline of acquisitions for which the company already has nonbinding letters of intent, according to the offering announcement.
In October, an AmSurg proposal to acquire Team Health Holdings in a $7.6 billion cash-and-stock deal was rebuffed by Team Health of Knoxville. Its aim was to create the nation's largest ambulatory surgery and physician-service company. Amsurg withdrew a sweetened offer for Team Health last month.
As of Sept. 30, AmSurg owned and operated 253 ambulatory surgery centers and provided physician services to more than 360 healthcare facilities. It is the nation's 17th largest investor-owned provider with 2014 operating revenue of $1.62 billion, according to Modern Healthcare data.
The offering's lead managers are SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and J.P. Morgan while joint managers are BMO Capital Markets, Jefferies and Guggenheim Securities.
