Signify Health gains 38% as Amazon, UnitedHealth spark bidding war
Nastassia Samal

The shares of Signify Health (NYSE:SGFY) jumped ~38% in pre-market trading Monday amid reports that the home health service provider plans to conduct a board meeting to evaluate multiple buyout offers.
The bidders include tech giant Amazon (AMZN), health insurers UnitedHealth (UNH), CVS Health (CVS), and home healthcare provider Option Care Health Inc. (OPCH).
A winner could be announced as early as this week, Bloomberg reported Sunday evening, adding that UNH has placed the highest bid of more than $30 per share, slightly ahead of AMZN's offer.
Previously, The Wall Street Journal reported that an auction for sale could value the Dallas-Texas-based company at over $8B.
Commenting on the news, Credit Suisse added that "Amazon is arguably the most deep pocketed of possible acquirors in the healthcare space." And the tech giant's offer could further raise the acquisition price and/or make the competition even more intense, the analysts led by A.J. Rice argued.
UNH's bid for SGFY comes as the company seeks to close two other transactions: Change Healthcare (CHNG) acquisition which is currently in courts, and the recent offer for home-healthcare provider LHC Group (LHCG).
The analysts note that UNH competes with SGFY through one of its segments in the OptumCare business. While each company's market share remains unclear, Credit Suisse notes that Optum represented 11% of SGFY's 2021 revenue, and a potential deal could draw regulatory scrutiny.
Commenting on CVS' offer, Rice and the team argue that the implied $7B â $8B valuation for SGFY "would seem to be at the high end of the company's deployable capital."
The buyout race for Signify Health (SGFY) comes at a time when its shares trade ~15% below the year-ago levels, as shown in this graph.