(Bloomberg) — Shares of the health insurer Humana Inc. rose after a report that the company hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to sell itself.
Humana rose 16 percent to $206.70 at 1:32 p.m. in New York, the stock's biggest intraday gain since 1999. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the company had hired the bank after being approached about a takeover, citing people familiar with the matter.
Humana and UnitedHealth Group Inc. are the top two sellers of private Medicare policies, the health insurer-run version of the U.S.'s program to cover the elderly and disabled. It also sells coverage to the under-65 population in the U.S., and runs insurance plans for companies that insure themselves.
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Since May 2010, the company's shares have almost quadrupled, compared with a 160 percent increase in the Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index of five insurers.
Insurers have been largely absent in the frenzy of dealmaking and consolidation that has swept the rest of the health care industry. Though with an aging U.S. population and the disruption to insurance markets from 2010's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the sector may be ripe for deals.
Larger insurers such as Aetna Inc. and Anthem Inc. would like to continue expanding beyond coverage that's paid for by employers, and could be interested buyers. A deal for either Humana, valued at $26.7 billion as of Thursday's close, would be the biggest acquisition of a U.S. managed-care provider in more than a decade.
Shares of other health insurers, including Anthem, Cigna Corp. and Molina Healthcare Inc., also jumped to record prices in trading Friday.
Spokesmen for Humana, Aetna and Cigna either declined to comment or didn't immediately respond.
Any pickup in deal activity would mark an end to a lull brought on by the Affordable Care Act, as insurers waited to gauge its implications. Since the beginning of 2013, less than $1 billion of publicly disclosed deals for U.S. health plan providers were struck. That's a lower tally than in any given year from 2009 to 2012.
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