KKR to buy Envision

KKR is buying physician services provider and surgery center operator Envision Healthcare Corp. in an approximately $9.9 billion deal.

The private equity firm will pay $46 in cash for each share of Envision’s stock in a deal the companies aim to close in the fourth quarter. The total price includes debt.

Nashville-based Envision announced last fall it would review its strategic options. Envision said Monday its board and financial advisers looked at acquisitions, contacted 25 potential buyers and considered keeping Envision as a standalone business. They determined the KKR deal offered the best chance to maximize shareholder value.

The companies said the share price in the deal is a 32-percent premium to the volume-weighted average price the day after the company said it would review strategic options.

Envision shares advanced more than 2 percent, or $1.01, to $44.65 Monday before markets opened and after they companies announced their deal.

Envision contracts with hospitals and health systems to provide doctors and clinicians for emergency medicine, anesthesiology and radiology, among other specialties. It also owns 261 surgery centers and a surgical hospital.

If KKR completes the deal, Envision will become a private company, and its shares will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange.