Surgery Partners said it will be taken private by HealthSpan Partners, an affiliate of Bon Secours Mercy Health, in a deal valued at about $5.7 billion including debt.
Surgery Partners said on Monday it will be taken private by HealthSpan Partners, an affiliate of nonprofit hospital system Bon Secours Mercy Health, in a deal valued at about $5.7 billion including debt, sending its shares up 46%.
Remaining shareholders will receive $23.50 a share, implying a premium of 49% to the stock's last close, and the shares closed Monday at $23.25, up 47.62%, just below the offer price. Private equity group Bain Capital, a minority shareholder since 2017 that owns 39% of Surgery Partners, will back the deal and retain a major ownership stake after closing. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, and HealthSpan intends to fund it through cash on hand and new debt for which commitments have been secured.
The combination will expand Bon Secours Mercy Health's footprint well beyond its more than 45 hospitals, adding more than 200 sites across 30 states and about 5,000 affiliated physicians, and will create one of the largest outpatient surgical care platforms in the country. The deal also ends a two-year strategic review during which Surgery Partners drew interest from potential buyers including Bain Capital, whose bid to take the company private last year was rebuffed. It follows a similar move in the sector, with not-for-profit health system Ascension having purchased surgical firm AmSurg for $3.9 billion earlier this year.
The deal terms are consistent across the Reuters report and the statement from McGuireWoods, which served as healthcare regulatory counsel to HealthSpan: the $5.7 billion enterprise value, the $23.50 price and the expected first-quarter 2027 close all appear in both accounts, and the share-price jump is corroborated by market coverage of Monday's session. One assessment in this article is an analyst view rather than a regulator's decision: Mizuho analyst Ann Hynes said that despite some market overlap in Ohio and Kentucky, she does not expect meaningful Federal Trade Commission antitrust risk issues, a judgement the review process has yet to test.
The deal is a bet on where American surgery is heading: out of hospitals and into outpatient centres, where costs are lower and volumes are growing. For patients and physicians the practical question is whether the combined network widens access or simply consolidates it, and that will be decided first by shareholders and regulators before the planned close early next year.