GE Reports has recently focused on the way in which loans from GE Capital are making a real impact when it comes to communities and jobs — from helping Boscov’s Department stores exit bankruptcy in Pennsylvania, to expanding Jack in the Box franchises in Texas, to growing 150 jobs with a recycling plant in Louisiana. But much of the financing GE Capital provides isn’t so obvious to the average consumer — and it’s happening right now in the critical area of healthcare. To underscore just how big a role GE Capital is playing, its Healthcare Financial Services business today announced that it ended the first six months of 2009 as one of the most active capital providers in the U.S. healthcare market, deploying approximately $1 billion for more than 45 transactions.
Get me GE Capital, stat! Among GE’s healthcare customers in the first half of this year was Salient Surgical Technologies, which received a $20 million credit facility that will be used to fund growth with a focus on field sales expansion and its new product pipeline. Salient, headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a medical device innovator that designs, manufactures and markets surgical tools based on its proprietary
Transcollation technology, which seals soft tissue, vessels and bone with a combination of radio-frequency energy and saline during surgery.
Darren AlcusGiven GE’s in-depth experience in the area of healthcare, a decision was made in 2002 to bring together many of the finance experts GE had in the healthcare space with industry thought leaders in order to create a business focused on providing loans to help drive the healthcare industry. Today, GE Healthcare Financial Services is working with customers in 30 sub-sectors including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, senior housing, early stage biotech, long-term care and hospitals to name a few. In the audio clip below, Darren Alcus, president and CEO of GE Capital’s Healthcare Financial Services, describes GE’s critical financing role.
Noting the toughest economic climate in decades, Darren said that “it’s an encouraging sign for the industry that demand for financing to support acquisitions, capital improvement projects and other growth initiatives has continued” despite the downturn.
Among the customers GE worked with in the first half of 2009 was Eden Prairie, MN-based Arizant Healthcare Inc., which received a $75 million credit facility. Arizant pioneered the concept of forced-air patient warming with the 1987 introduction of its Bair Hugger therapy, which helps patients under anesthesia regulate their core body temperature — which can drop rapidly after general anesthesia is given. Today, more than 80 percent of U.S. hospitals use Bair Hugger therapy.
GE also provided a $25 million credit facility to Regency Healthcare Group, which is based in Brentwood, TN and provides hospice care to terminally ill patients. The loan is being used to refinance existing debt and for growth capital. And in the area of real estate, GE provided an $83 million credit facility to Life Care Centers of America, a privately held skilled nursing owner/operator, based in Cleveland, TN. Life Care, which has over 200 facilities across the country, is using the loan to refinance existing debt and to acquire several properties.
Further increasing its presence in healthcare financing, in May GE Capital announced that it is committed to providing about $2 billion in financing as part of the company’s new healthymagination business strategy to lower healthcare costs, improve access and increase quality. You can learn more in the GE Reports story, “GE commits $6 billion in new healthymagination launch.” As part of that strategy, GE Capital has already begun helping doctors move to adopt electronic medical records, as described in the GE Reports story, “New GE program fast-tracks electronic medical records.”
* Read today’s announcement
* Read “GE Capital’s loan helps grow 150 jobs in Shreveport” on GE Reports
* Read “Dallas keeps on truckin’ with GE Capital” on GE Reports
* Read about GE Capital’s work with Boscov’s department store
* Read GE Reports’ 5-part series on GE Capital, “My Favorite Slide”
* Read about GE Capital’s investment partnership with Mubadala Development Co.
* Read “Key congressman: No need to split banking, commerce” on GE Reports
