Starr Investment consortium in pact to buy MultiPlan for reported $4.4 bn

A consortium led by Starr Investment Holdings yesterday said that it will buy US health insurance claims processor MultiPlan Inc from Silver Lake Partners and BC Partners, for an undisclosed sum.

However various reports have estimated the deal size at $4.4 billion, making the deal Starr's biggest private equity investment to date.

Starr Investment, an affiliate of insurance and investments conglomerate C V Starr & Co, has teamed up with Swiss investment firm Partners Group and other undisclosed investors to buy MultiPlan.

Starr Investment said that the transaction has fully committed financing from Barclays Plc and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

BC Partners and Silver Lake had acquired MultiPlan in 2010 from The Carlyle Group and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe for $3.1 billion.

Founded in 1980 as a New York hospital network, MultiPlan is the most comprehensive provider of healthcare cost management solutions in the US.

With a network of over 900,000 healthcare providers and extensive proprietary analytics, MultiPlan generates over $11 billion in medical cost savings on about 40 million claims annually.

Its clients include large and mid-sized insurers, third party administrators, self-funded plans, health maintenance organisations and other entities that pay claims on behalf of health plans.

Mark Tabak, MultiPlan's CEO said, "Starr's historical relationship with MultiPlan and its executives was fundamental in bringing our firms together. With the investment led by Starr and Partners Group, we have the long-term capital, strategic support and collective set of relationships to further grow our company and evolve our solutions in the rapidly-changing healthcare market and beyond."

"MultiPlan operates at the center of the healthcare ecosystem and is uniquely positioned to continue to expand its service offering and drive value and cost savings for its customers," said Geoffrey Clark, senior managing director of Starr Investment.