Kindred Healthcare buys hospitals, nursing centers, for $218M

by Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | August 25, 2010
Kindred on buying spree.
Kindred Healthcare Inc. said Tuesday it would buy hospitals and nursing centers in California and Texas for $218 million in cash, financing the purchases with revolving credit.

The Louisville, Ky.-based health system is scooping up five long-term acute care hospitals in Southern California from Vista Healthcare LLC for $180 million. The hospitals, totaling 250 beds, will join the 83 acute care hospitals Kindred currently owns nationwide.

Kindred said the hospitals generate around $150 in annual sales and $27 million in earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Kindred is also buying three recently built nursing and rehabilitation centers in the Dallas-Forth Worth region for $38 million, where it already owns around six hospitals. The owners of the centers, which have a total of 405 beds, were not named.

The nursing centers generate around $24 million in revenue every year and provide $3 million in earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, the company said. Kindred operates around 223 nursing and rehabilitation centers in the United States.

Both transactions are expected to close by the end of the year.

"We continue to seek opportunities to expand our continuum of post-acute care services in our key cluster markets to support the growing interest among public and private payors for integrated care," Paul J. Diaz, Kindred's president and CEO, said in a statement.

Kindred's stock rose 2.4 percent to reach $12 a share in recent trading Tuesday.