Community Health Systems has 7 sales transactions underway

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

ValleyCare Health System’s parent company, Community Health Systems, said it has seven sales transactions underway.

The transactions include 17 hospitals, home care and nonhospital real-estate properties that were not named during a conference call for the company’s third-quarter earnings released this week.

Locally, Community Health’s ValleyCare locations are Northside Medical Center on Gypsy Lane, Youngstown; Trumbull Memorial Hospital on East Market Street, Warren; Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital on Squires Lane Northeast in Howland; and Sharon Regional Health System on State Street in Sharon, Pa.

The assets of the 17 facilities account for $2 billion in annual revenue. Proceeds from the transactions are listed at $1.2 billion. The proceeds will go toward debt reduction.

The transactions are expected to close between the fourth quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017.

“We are receiving interest from a number of parties,” said Wayne T. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Community, during the conference call.

Franklin, Tenn.-based Community reported a loss of $79 million in its third quarter on Tuesday, which compared with a profit of $52 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company brought in revenue of $4.38 billion in the third quarter of 2016, a 9.6 percent decrease from the third quarter of 2015.

The company said in September it would “divest” – sale or get rid of – in 12 hospitals to pay off its debts of $850 million.

The company, which has 158 affiliated hospitals in 22 states, hasn’t named all the locations it will sell but it did announce an agreement for the sale of four hospitals and assets of Curae Health Inc. Facilities.