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July 23, 2015 at 04:40 AM
(Bloomberg) — Anthem Inc. (NYSE:ANTM) s near an agreement to buy rival Cigna Corp. (NYSE:CI) for about $48 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said. A deal would create the largest health insurer in the U.S. after almost a year of talks.
See also: Anthem-Cigna $47 billion deal hinges on dueling CEOs’ tussle
Anthem will pay $187 a share for Cigna, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. That compares with its most recent offer of $184 a share. Cigna closed Wednesday at $151.07 in New York, for a market value of about $39 billion. An announcement could come later this week, the people said.
“It was a reasonably good price to begin with,” Ana Gupte, an analyst at Leerink Partners in New York, said Wednesday in a phone interview. “Shareholders were happy with $184 even. And they were telling Anthem and Cigna to resolve their differences and get the deal done.”
An acquisition would add to a wave of consolidation sweeping over the health-insurance industry. Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) said it agreed to buy Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) for $35 billion earlier this month, a day after Centene Corp. (NYSE:CNC) said it struck a deal to acquire Health Net Inc. (NYSE:HNT) for $6.3 billion.
See also: Fitch: Big health deals may bring on small deals
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is helping drive the mergers, in part by imposing tougher rules and limits on the industry’s profits.
