HCA looks to raise nearly $5 billion

HCA Healthcare June 12, 2019

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Sam Hazen is CEO of HCA Healthcare Inc.
NATHAN MORGAN PHOTOGRAPHY

HCA Healthcare Inc. filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday that could help the Nashville-based company raise some serious cash.

The hospital giant will offer $4.9 billion of senior secured notes with the intent to use proceeds for “general corporate purposes and the redemption of certain outstanding indebtedness,” according to the filing. These notes are in addition to a $1 billion offering announced in January.

Nearly $2 billion of the new notes are set to mature in 2029, with another approximately $1 billion scheduled to mature 10 years later. The remaining notes mature in 2049, according to the filing.

HCA (NYSE: HCA) is Nashville’s largest publicly traded company, with $46.6 billion of revenue in 2018, according to Nashville Business Journal research. The company has 185 hospitals across 21 states, including two in Central Florida and a new $175 million, 64-bed, 204,079-square-foot teaching hospital in the works in southeast Orlando's Lake Nona community in partnership with the University of Central Florida. HCA also has a new $11.6 million freestanding ER in Sanford that recently expanded its footprint in Seminole County.

While Thursday’s filing does not mention using proceeds for expansion, the filing that accompanied the January notes said those proceeds could be used for acquisitions.

CEO Sam Hazen has hinted at future mergers and acquisitions in the past, saying the environment is “presenting opportunities for us to make sizable acquisitions” during the company’s first-quarter earnings call. Since then, the company has purchased Galen College of Nursing, which is one of the country’s largest nursing schools.

HCA had more than $32 billion of debt on its books at the conclusion of 2018, according to the filing.