The Franklin-based hospital giant, Community Health Systems, saw its stock price plummet by 50 percent on Thursday, closing at $5.05 per share. The struggling hospital giant warned investors that its revenue is going to keep dropping.
The nation’s second largest hospital chain has seen its financial performance tumble in recent years after acquiring the debt-laden hospital chain, Health Management Associates, in 2014. The company has $15 billion in debt and its stock price has dropped by 77 percent since January.
Late last month the company said it was exploring a potential sale—reportedly to a private equity firm or possibly another chain. A Chinese billionaire has also been pursuing a controlling stake in the company by amassing vast amounts of CHS stock.
Frank Morgan, a Nashville-based analyst with RBC Capital Markets, says no matter who ends up purchasing the hospital heavyweight, its path to profitability is clear: a top to bottom overhaul.
“Anyone that has taken a look at this company, being it a private equity company or whoever,” Morgan says, “I think that part of the strategy here will be absolutely to restructure, to refine the portfolio, divest assets and really focus on operations at those hospitals you choose to keep.”
It’s still not clear what a potential overhaul could mean for the company’s 5,000 full-time employees in Williamson County and its $66 million office building under construction now in Antioch.
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