The private equity firm: Warburg Pincus
The hospital system: Coffee Health Group
The price: $325 million
The scoop: Investment banking giant Warburg Pincus funded the startup of Brentwood, Tenn.-based RegionalCare Hospital Partners with $325 million in 2009. It's since had its share of ups and downs in the world of hospital M&A. It lost out earlier this year on a bid to purchase Landmark Medical Center in Rhode Island, particularly after nursing staff threatened to strike over the deal. The winner was, ironically, Steward Health Care/Cerberus.
However, RegionalCare has been more successful with its 2010 acquisition of Alabama's Coffee Health Group, a two-hospital not-for-profit system that had been struggling financially for years. RegionalCare's deep pockets have been welcomed: It paid off Coffee's $140 million in debt, and will spend $270 million to build a new facility to mostly replace Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence, Ala.