Surgery Partners shares jump 21.2% premarket on potential acquisition talks
Key Facts
Surgery Partners shares jumped 21.2% in premarket trading on October 26 after an Investing.com report said Bon Secours Mercy Health was nearing an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in the company. The report valued the potential deal at about $6 billion, including about $3.5 billion in debt, implying a price of nearly $20 per share. The deal remains at the stage of potential talks, according to the report, while the jump came in premarket trading. Separately, Galp and Moeve said their talks on combining refining, chemicals and fuel trading operations had ended. Galp's chairwoman said the parties had not reached commercial alignment to support a lasting, value-generating partnership.
According to the report, Bain Capital is expected to retain its stake in Surgery Partners under the proposed structure. Bain Capital has owned about 40% of the company since 2017, making its continued investment part of the deal concept under discussion. Surgery Partners operates more than 176 surgical centers and hospitals across 30 U.S. states, according to the report. The network would give the potential deal broad operational reach in the U.S. healthcare market. Available daily closing data do not establish the stock's performance on October 26; it closed at $15.75 on October 23, after closing at $14.71 on October 19, $15.49 on October 20, $15.4 on October 21 and $15.9 on October 22.
Galp and Moeve's talks had begun with a non-binding agreement announced in January to explore combining downstream assets through two joint ventures. The proposed industrial venture would have included Galp's Sines refinery and Moeve's Huelva and Algeciras refineries, with processing capacity of about 700,000 barrels per day. Under the proposal, Moeve was expected to hold a controlling stake in the venture, while Galp would own more than 20%. The plan also included a retail fuel business operating about 3,500 service stations, mostly in Spain and Portugal, with ownership split equally between the two groups. The agreement would have brought together industrial assets and retail networks on the Iberian Peninsula, but the talks ended without reaching the necessary commercial terms.
The announcement that the talks had ended came amid an improvement in Galp's operating indicators in the third quarter. Working interest production averaged 131,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up 14% year on year and 3% from the second quarter. The refining margin also rose to $33.8 per barrel equivalent, compared with $9.5 in the third quarter of the previous year and $16.8 in the second quarter of 2026. The company attributed the quarter's improved performance to higher commodity prices, strong refining operations and increased upstream production, while noting continued disruption to global energy supply chains. The figures show how Galp's operations performed during the period when talks to reorganize its downstream assets were still under consideration.
Galp reported third-quarter adjusted replacement-cost earnings of 1.52 billion euros, up 67% year on year and above the analyst consensus of 1.47 billion euros. Following the results, the company raised its 2026 adjusted replacement-cost earnings forecast to about 5 billion euros from about 4 billion previously. It also raised its operating cash flow forecast to about 3.9 billion euros, compared with about 3 billion in its previous estimate. Third-quarter results were scheduled for release before the Euronext Lisbon market opened on October 26, with an analyst call at 11:00 Lisbon and London time. For Moeve, its chief executive said a potential combination with Galp was an opportunity to accelerate value creation, but was not a prerequisite for carrying out its transformation plan; the company reaffirmed its focus on its transition to lower-carbon businesses.