AmSurg intends to make another $50 million worth of acquisitions in the fourth quarter, bringing to $400 million its spending on deals for all of 2016, the company said this week.
AmSurg is continuing to shop for physician-staffing companies and ambulatory surgery centers even as it prepares to complete a merger with Envision Healthcare. That deal would create the nation's largest physician staffing company.
Both AmSurg and Envision have scheduled special shareholder meetings on Nov. 28 to vote on the merger announced this summer. Regulatory hurdles to the deal have been cleared.
In its release of third-quarter earnings this week, AmSurg CEO Christopher Holden said the company bought three ambulatory surgery centers in the quarter and completed the purchase of two hospital anesthesiology practices.
“We continue to evaluate additional potential acquisitions in our strong pipeline, including opportunities for ambulatory services and across all our physician services specialties,” Holden said.
On the strength of more than $1 billion in acquisitions over the past 12 months, Nashville, Tenn.-based AmSurg posted an increase in revenue in the third quarter to $822.2 million, up 26% from the year-earlier $650.2 million.
Net earnings in the third quarter fell 7%, primarily due to costs associated with its merger with Envision. AmSurg posted net income of $37.7 million in the quarter compared with $40.4 million in the year-earlier quarter.
AmSurg's quarterly financial filing showed that transaction costs in the quarter ballooned to $16.9 million compared with $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2015.
AmSurg's merger partner, Greenwood, Colo.-based Envision, also reported extra merger costs while releasing its third-quarter earnings this week. Envision lowered its full-year guidance on adjusted EBITDA to between $705 million and $715 million from a range of $715 million to $730 million during its second quarter earnings release.
AmSurg and Envision have little overlap in their respective business lines, paving the way for quick regulatory approvals for their merger.
Envision is heavily into emergency room physician staffing and ambulance services, while AmSurg focuses on physician staffing in hospital specialties such as radiology, anesthesiology and neonatology. AmSurg also is a major player in freestanding ambulatory surgery centers.
Together, the companies will create the nation's largest physician staffing company with annual revenue of about $8.5 billion. That far exceeds the just over $4 billion in revenue of TeamHealth of Knoxville, Tenn., which announced Monday that it is being sold to private-equity firm Blackstone Group for $6.1 billion.
