Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan to Combine with Spectrum Health System

Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan (MMC), a nonprofit community hospital in Ludington, MI, has signed a letter of intent to partner with Spectrum Health System (Spectrum), based in Grand Rapids, MI. After proactively considering over two-dozen potential suitors and multiple transaction structures, MMC chose to enter into a business combination with Spectrum. MMC was particularly impressed with Spectrum’s commitment to advance its position in the region and to further the provision of high-quality healthcare to the Ludington market.

Juniper’s Role
The Board of Directors of MMC engaged Juniper Advisory to:

• Provide understanding regarding national and state trends in the hospital M&A market, including the dramatic wave of activity currently underway in Michigan.
• Assess MMC’s strategic alternatives by seeking actionable ideas and input from leading industry participants.
• Design and implement a controlled competitive process to obtain change-of-control proposals from prospective partners. This included careful identification of potential suitors, creating informational materials, drafting instruction letters, populating an electronic data room, and conducting reverse due diligence in an effort to pull the best set of conditions out of the market for MMC to evaluate.
• Negotiate the terms of the letter of intent.

Memorial Medical Center of West Michigan
Memorial is an independent regional medical center serving four counties of West Michigan and thousands of tourists who visit the area during the summer. MMC is the only hospital in Mason County and is the county’s largest employer. MMC has a history of strong market share in its primary and secondary service areas in both inpatient and outpatient services. In creating this partnership, the Board seeks to ensure an enhanced ability to provide high-quality regional healthcare and to advance its mission by increasing the breadth of available clinical services, medical capabilities, and financial wherewithal in West Michigan.

Spectrum Health System
Spectrum is the leading nonprofit health system in West Michigan and consists of nine hospitals, 130 ambulatory and service sites, physician groups totaling 751 providers, and a health plan with 600,000 members. Employing over 19,000 people, Spectrum is West Michigan’s largest employer and is ranked a Top 10 Integrated System in the U.S. by Thomson Reuters and a Top 50 Hospital by US News & World Report. During Fiscal Year 2012, Spectrum provided $204 million in community benefit. This transaction will further Spectrum’s commitment to an integrated healthcare system throughout West Michigan.

In the Press
For additional information, please refer to MMC’s press release.