In Wake of Aborted Australian Bid, Tenet to Expand U.S. Outpatient Sites

Tags: Healthscope | outpatient | stock upgrade | Tenet | Trevor Fetter

Tenet's CEO said the company will seek to expand outpatient clinics through acquisitions and continue to reduce costs, in the wake of its aborted offer to buy the Australian hospital company Healthscope, according to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference in Los Angeles, CEO Trevor Fetter said the company will also try to "close the gap" with the overall hospital industry on the ratio of adjusted earnings. Tenet's EBITDA was 10.9 percent in 2009, compared with 14.3 percent for the overall industry, excluding Tenet, he said.

Tenet, the third-largest publicly traded hospital system, raised its 2010 earnings forecast from 24-32 to 34-41 cents per share excluding certain items.

Analyst Robert Hawkins upgraded Tenet's stock from "hold" to "buy," writing in a research note the shares shouldn't continue to be penalized for the Healthscope bid, according to a report in Forbes. Mr. Hawkins said he believed the stock "will begin to price in an appropriate rebound."

The Tenet CEO acknowledged the company had been pummeled by investors for the bid. "Reactions of our shareholders and analysts to our expression of interest in the company was negative, to say the least,” he said.

Read the Bloomberg Businessweek report on Tenet.

Read the Forbes report on Tenet.

© Copyright ASC COMMUNICATIONS 2012. Interested in LINKING to or REPRINTING this content? View our policies by clicking here.