(Reuters) -Home health and hospice caregiver Amedisys on Monday agreed to a $3.3 billion sweetened cash offer from UnitedHealth Group and scrapped an all-stock deal with Option Care Health.
UnitedHealth is buying the company for $101 per share, which is a dollar higher than its previous offer and above the $97.38 per share all-stock deal with Option Care in May.
Interest in the home health sector has been rising since the pandemic as more patients and caregivers prefer accessing medical services from the safety of their homes.
The acquisition will expand UnitedHealth’s presence in home healthcare, a business it bolstered this year through a $5.4 billion deal to buy Amedisys’ rival, LHC Group.
However, UnitedHealth’s presence in the segment through the LHC acquisition has stoked some anti-trust concerns about the deal for Amedisys.
Meanwhile, Option Care said it was “disappointed” with the cancellation of the deal and will get $106 million from Amedisys as per its May agreement.
Option Care shares rose 3% in early trading, while those of Amedisys and UnitedHealth were largely flat.
Option Care investors had largely disapproved of its deal for Amedisys as they believed the company was capable of recording strong growth on its own.
Its shares had slumped 14% in May due to the Amedisys deal, but rose nearly 10% this month after UnitedHealth entered the race.
William Blair analyst Matt Larew said in a note he recently spoke with the Option management who said they will continue to explore strategic deals even if the Amedisys deal falls through.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Arun Koyyur)
