Chinese investor Tianqiao Chen added to his holdings in Community Health Systems, purchasing a little less than $400,000 worth of shares, which brings his total ownership stake to 25.5 million shares.
Chen through various firms under the Shanda name already controlled 22% of the company, a percentage that holds steady after the most recent purchase, which was through Shanda Asset Management Holdings, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
What Chen paid for the shares ranged from $3.91 to $3.99, much lower than the $6.10 and $7.10 per share that Chen paid in August for 9.8 million of the shares he owns. He controls enough to be considered an activist investor but he's cautioned CHS CEO Wayne Smith that he's not interested in shaking up the company which is facing some financial hardships.
CHS is working to sell off assets before some loans come due in 2019, and as part of that earlier this week announced it had sold its 120-bed hospital in Dade City, Fla., to Adventist Health System for undisclosed terms.
Early in the month, CHS said in an SEC filing that Michael Portacci, the company's division president in charge of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas, had retired and would become a consultant paid $12,500 per month from December of this year through November 2019, though the contract runs through March of 2020.
