UnitedHealth bought Amidisys for $3.3 billion as the home health company canceled the Option deal

June 26 (Reuters) – Home and shelter healthcare provider Amidisys (AMED.O) on Monday approved a $3.3 billion local cash offer from UnitedHealth Group and scrapped an all-stock deal with Option Care Health (OPCH.O). ). ).

UnitedHealth is buying the company for $101 per share, $1 higher than its previous offer and higher than the $97.38 per share all-share deal with Option Care in May.

Interest in the home health sector has been on the rise since the pandemic as more patients and caregivers prefer to access medical services from the safety of their homes.

The acquisition will expand UnitedHealth’s presence in home health care, a business it boosted this year with a $5.4 billion deal to buy Ammedisys’ competitor, LHC Group.

However, UnitedHealth’s presence in the sector through the acquisition of LHC has raised some antitrust concerns over the Ammedisys deal.

Option Care, meanwhile, said it was “disappointed” that the deal was canceled and would receive $106 million from Amidisys according to the May agreement.

Option Care shares were up 3% in early trade, while Ammedisys and UnitedHealth shares were largely flat.

Option Care investors have largely rejected its deal for Amidisys because they believe the company can post strong growth on its own.

Its shares fell 14% in May because of the Ammedisys deal, but have risen about 10% this month after UnitedHealth entered the race.

William Blair analyst Matt Lario said in a note that he recently spoke with Option management who said they would continue to explore strategic deals even if the Ammedisys deal fell through.

Additional reporting by Leroy Liu in Bengaluru; Editing by Soumyadib Chakrabarti and Arun Koyoor

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.