llwk, I wish I knew where the edge is.
At $130mil, this Coram deal is not of the scale of Rotech, more in line with the Community Care purchase.
I looked at IHS's August 10-Q, and someone can help me with the math here if I have it wrong, but their debt/asset ratio comes out at 56% using 1,205,087,000 long term debt and 2,142,647,000 assets. I'm not sure how to factor in the Coram deal but it does look like IHS is stretching the 50-55% target that they said they were aiming for during their conference call.
I do know that IHS makes no bones about being aggressive and having the intention of absorbing as much of the market as it can during 97. Their strategy is absolutely to become one of the surviving major providers after a period of sector "shakedown".
I take temporary comfort in the fact that they made out OK today while so many others took losses to some extent. To give any kind of educated assurance on the future would take a lot more intimate knowledge of the field and the management plan than I have. |
