(Bloomberg) -- Ardent Health Partners Inc. shares ended roughly flat in their trading debut, after raising $192 million in an initial public offering that was reduced from its proposed size and priced below a marketed range.
Shares in the hospital operator pared an initial decline to close at $16.06 each on Thursday, little changed from their $16 IPO price, giving the company a market value of about $2.3 billion.
The company sold 12 million shares on Wednesday, after having marketed 14.3 million shares for $20 to $22 apiece.
Second IPO Attempt
Ardent Health’s IPO was successful on its second attempt. The company previously filed to go public in 2018, but withdrew that plan in 2020.
“We’ve been working at this for years to position ourselves to be a strong public company,” said Chief Executive Officer Marty Bonick.
Ardent Health has 30 acute care hospitals and operates a network of ambulatory facilities and telehealth services, in eight mid-sized urban markets across six states, according to its filing. It served over 1.2 million patients last year, the filing shows.
The IPO proceeds will provide capital to fund growth in Ardent Health’s existing markets, and acquire hospital groups in markets it’s not already in, where there’s above average population growth.
“You’ve seen a lot of population movement from some large, major metropolitans to some of the smaller markets,” Bonick said. “We see that as an advantage for us.”
The company had net income of $129 million on revenue of $5.4 billion in 2023, compared with net income of $265 million on revenue of $5.1 billion a year earlier, according to the filing.
Equity Group Investments, the firm founded by Sam Zell, the billionaire investor who died last year, partnered with health-care real estate investment trust Ventas to acquire Ardent in 2015, according to EGI’s website. Ventas took ownership of Ardent’s real estate, and EGI, along with several capital partners, acquired Ardent’s operations and entered into a long-term master lease with Ventas.
The offering was led by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley. The company’s shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ARDT.
--With assistance from Michael Hytha.
(Updates with closing IPO price in first and second paragraphs.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
