Health insurer Centene to buy smaller rival WellCare for $15.27 billion
- U.S. health insurer Centene Corp on Wednesday said it would buy smaller rival WellCare Health Plans Inc for $15.27 billion in stock and cash, in a move to bulk up its government-backed Medicare and Medicaid businesses while reducing exposure to Obamacare healthcare exchanges.Shares of WellCare jumped 9.8 percent to $253.98. Centene shares fell about 7.5 percent to 50.71.
The combined company will have 22 million members, up from around 14 million for Centene at the end of 2018. Since the beginning of 2014, when Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion began taking effect on a significant scale, shares of both companies have surged. Centene’s shares are up around 272 percent, while WellCare shares rose around 228 percent.
The deal, including debt, was valued at $17.3 billion. The offer price of $305.39 per share represents a premium of about 32 percent to WellCare’s closing price on Tuesday.
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