(Bloomberg) — Veritas Capital is exploring a sale of Cotiviti Corp. that could value the health-care information and analytics company at more than $15 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The private equity firm had been working with advisers on an initial public offering of Cotiviti for as soon as this year, Bloomberg News reported in July. It’s now leaning toward a sale as volatility unsettles equity markets, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
An official sales process could start as soon as January, the people said. The company could attract interest from private equity firms eager to deploy cash, one of the people said.
A final decision hasn’t been made and an IPO is still an option, while Veritas could also decide to keep the company, the people said.
A representative for Veritas declined to comment. A representative for Cotiviti didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A sale would add to Veritas’s returns in health-care IT. Last month, the firm agreed to sell Athenahealth Inc. to private equity firms for $17 billion after buying the company for about $5.7 billion with Elliott Investment Management in 2018.
Cotiviti sells its services to payers like commercial health insurers and the government, auditing claims and analyzing data to help them ensure payments to doctors and hospitals are accurate. It helps clients save $5.7 billion in annual medical costs by improving payment accuracy, according to its website. It makes money in part by sharing in the savings it generates for health insurers.
Cotiviti was taken private in 2018 when Veritas-backed Verscend Technologies bought it in a deal valued at $4.9 billion, renaming the merged business Cotiviti. Veritas had purchased Verscend from Verisk Analytics for $820 million, according to a statement on Verisk’s website.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
