Kaiser's Risant Health to invest more than $1B in Cone Health

Kaiser Permanente's Risant Health plans to pour well over $1 billion in capital into Cone Health after its acquisition.

The nonprofit pledged a minimum of $1 billion in capital funds to Cone for five years once the deal has closed to support investments in facilities, health equity initiatives and other capital projects, according to financial documents published Tuesday.

Related: Kaiser-backed Risant Health acquires second hospital system

In addition, Risant also agreed to provide up to $400 million over five years to help Cone's integration into the organization, including through the implementation of Risant's value-based platform, and up to $300 million over a decade to support growth opportunities at Cone, according to the documents.

A Cone spokesperson declined to comment on the planned investments.

Risant announced a definitive agreement in June to acquire Greensboro, North Carolina-based Cone, which has more than 13,000 employees and 1,800 partner physicians. If approved, the deal would be Risant's second acquisition, following the transaction with Geisinger Health in April.

The Cone transaction is expected to close in early 2025, subject to regulatory approval. Cone would operate independently but draw resources and support from Risant.

Cone reported $164 million in net income in the first nine months of its fiscal 2024, which ends Sept. 30, compared with $104 million in the year-ago period.

Risant has said it plans to invest at least $100 million in Geisinger through 2028 to expand care delivery and $115 million a year over the next decade to support research and education initiatives.

Washington, D.C.-based Risant is looking to buy up health systems to create a national value-based care network. It plans to acquire a handful of other systems in the next five years.

Kaiser, which includes Risant and Geisinger in its financials, reported a 0.8% rise in second-quarter net income to $2.1 billion, compared with the year-ago period.