Monday, November 12, 2018
Sard Verbinnen & Co. is handling Veritas Capital’s $5.7B deal ($135 per-share) for Athenahealth, which provides technology services for hospital and ambulatory companies.
The transaction calls for Elliott Management Corp’s Evergreen Coast Capital unit to be a minority investor in the combination of Athena and Veritas-backed Virence Health, the GE Healthcare unit that Veritas acquired in July for $1.1B.
Elliott, which controls a nine percent stake in Athena, offered to offered to buy the company for $160 per-share in May.
The Financial Times notes the Athena deal is the largest-ever for Veritas, which has $10B in assets under management.
Jeff Immelt, former GE CEO and executive chairman of Athena, expects private ownership will benefit his Watertown (MA)-based company via “increased flexibility to achieve our purpose of unleashing our collective potential to transform healthcare.."
SV&C’s Andrew Cole, David Millar and Julie Rudnick represent Veritas, while Athena relies on Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher’s Barrett Golden, Nick Lamplough and Scott Bisang.