I saw this first on the New York Times "Prescriptions" Health Care Reform blog -- do go read it all. This is telling -- as much as I disagreed with Senator Frist on many other matters, when he was in the Senate, he did generally know what leadership looked like -- not so, many of the remaining Senators now of the minority party, as this shows:
. . . .Democrats in Congress and at the White House were abuzz on Friday afternoon after Time magazine’s Web site published an interview with the former Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, saying he would vote in favor of the Democrats' big health care legislation if he were still in Congress.
"I would end up voting for it,” Mr. Frist said, in an interview with Time’s Karen Tumulty. “As leader, I would take heat for it," he said. "That’s what leadership is all about. . . ."
Indeed.
Of course, to be fair, here though, his vast family fortune (some $2 billion, placing his family at No. 158 on the 2009 Forbes Richest Americans List), largely invested in HCA (indirectly beneficially-owning,
with members of his family, at least 18 percent of its total outstanding stock) won't be hurt nearly as much by this particular version of the legislation, than by some of the others previously floated. HCA holds and operates 163 for-profit hospitals, and 105 free-standing surgi-centers in 20 states.More specifically, per the July 31, 2009 HCA Schedule 14C SEC filing, we learn that "Thomas F. Frist, III and William R. Frist may each be deemed to indirectly beneficially hold 17,804,125 shares, or 18.9%, of our outstanding common stock through their interests in Hercules Holding. . . ." Those 17.8 million shares of HCA are worth about $2 billion, according to the Forbes September 30, 2009 article, on the Frist family holdings.
1 comment:
The Frist family, as a group, just garnered a $330,750,000 dividend on its HCA investment. Per the Wall Street Journal, just now -- the private equity owners of HCA (prior to likely taking HCA back out as a public company) are paying themselves a "recapitalization dividend" of $1.75 billion, in the aggregate.
The Frist share of that -- at 18.9 percent of all the shares -- will be almost $331 million.
So -- if this recurring craze holds form -- about five years after HCA returns to public company status, it will be taken into, and through, bankruptcy.
[Already, its interest coverage ratios are souring, as a result of this massive dividend payment.]
Namaste
Post a Comment