© 2016 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(Nov. 1) – A team of lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright’s Austin, Houston and San Antonio offices handled two hospital transactions in Oklahoma worth at least $750 million.
In the first transaction, the firm represented the University Hospitals Authority and Trust (UHAT) in its agreement with Nashville-based Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) for HCA to terminate its lease of The Children’s Hospital at Oklahoma University Medical Center as well as an associated joint operating agreement. HCA will also transfer ownership of its hospital operations in Oklahoma, which include Oklahoma University Medical Center and OUMC Edmond, an affiliate of UHAT.
Under the agreement, HCA will receive $750 million in consideration.
Separately, the Fulbright team represented UHAT and the board of regents of the University of Oklahoma in their agreement to create a new partnership with SSM Health’s St. Anthony Hospitals and Physicians Group for an undisclosed amount. The new combined healthcare network will partner with the physicians to deliver “exceptional healthcare” and “advance transformative clinical research and provide innovative educational experiences for future physicians and health professionals,” a joint statement from the companies said.
The combined resources of OU Medicine, UHAT and SSM Health include more than 23 Oklahoma hospitals and affiliates, including OU Medical Center, The Children’s Hospital and OU Medical Center Edmond, as well as St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City, Bone and Joint Hospital at St. Anthony and St. Anthony Shawnee Hospital.
Currently the OU Medical System is managed by HCA. Both the joint operating agreement termination transaction and the new partnership transaction are anticipated to close in the first half of 2017.
Leading the Fulbright team for both transactions was Austin healthcare transactions partner Jerry Bell. The team also included tax partner George Scofield in San Antonio; finance partner Dan Tristan, corporate partner Efren Acosta and associates Scott Brown, Jeannie Poland and Katie Mize and tax senior counsel Jay Chadha and Scott Keys in Houston; real estate partner Win Walp and corporate associate Stephanie Tso in Dallas; and attorneys from the firm’s Denver, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. offices. Denver partner-in-charge Gene Lewis, a corporate partner who also offices in Houston, also played a significant role in the deal.
Mike Samis, the chairman of UHAT, in an email sang his praises to the lawyer team.
“The University Hospitals Trust transaction with HCA and SSM Health was extremely complex,” he said. “The team at Norton Rose Fulbright was integral in completing our deal. They are real partners.”
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