Ardent CEO: Funding Cuts Could Add to M&A Pipeline
The upheaval around the funding of federal healthcare agencies could provide “a modest tailwind” to the acquisition efforts of Ardent Health Partners Inc., President and CEO Marty Bonick said Feb. 27.
Speaking to analysts after Ardent reported strong fourth-quarter results and a forecast of 6 percent revenue growth in 2025, Bonick said his team has been steadily building Nashville-based Ardent’s pipeline of potential deals, be they outright acquisitions or joint ventures along the lines the company already operates. Asked about the uncertainty around National Institutes of Health funding for research and other healthcare programs, he said it’s already having an impact.
“There’s definitely concern, particularly [at] those academic institutions that more heavily depend on NIH funding and research,” Bonick said. “That will put pressure on their … plans and that will ultimately benefit us as we look towards new expansion opportunities.”
Bonick did add that it’s early in the process and that his team isn’t seeing a direct impact yet.
“There’s been a lot of discussion but not a lot of details,” he said.
To that point, Politico reported March 3 that the Trump administration’s push to cut NIH funding across the board has been temporarily blocked by a federal court but that the president could pivot to a plan challenging each university’s funding individually.
Ardent operators 30 hospitals and about 280 sites of care in eight markets in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Idaho and New Jersey. Several of its holdings are through joint ventures with academic health systems. Leaders’ expansion strategy has of late focused more on outpatient facilities in its regions but Bonick has said he also wants Ardent to move into new markets.
