Ensign Group, a Mission Viejo-based nursing home and rehabilitative care company, has filed plans to go public, looking to raise up to $95 million.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ensign didn’t specify more details of its offering except to indicate its common stock would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “ENSG.”
Great Falls, Montana-based D.A. Davidson & Co. and Stifel Nicolaus & Co. of St. Louis are underwriting the deal.
Ensign is profitable. It made $22.5 million on revenue of $359 million in 2006. It was founded in 1999 and has 60 facilities in California and five other states. The company has 5,435 workers.
The company has been a target of what it calls “the actions of a national labor union that has been pursuing a negative publicity campaign criticizing our business” in its filing.
It specifically names “a negative labor campaign by at lease one labor union, the Service Employees International Union and its local chapter based in Oakland.”
Ensign indicated in its filing that it was a target because “unlike many other companies in our industry, we continue to assert our right to inform our employees about our views of the potential impact of unionization upon the workplace generally and on individual employees.”
With one exception, staff at its facilities had rejected unionization efforts, Ensign said.
Another local nursing home operator, Foothill Ranch-based SHG Holding Solutions Inc., has filed plans to go public this year.
SHG, which does business as Skilled Healthcare Group, said it expects to complete its initial public offering after swapping $200 million in debt, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The companies seem to be hoping investors will warm to them amid a comeback for nursing homes.
A decade ago, the sector went through turmoil. At one time, five of the top seven nursing home operators sought refuge in bankruptcy court.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which dealt nursing home operators heavy cuts in federal reimbursements, brought on much of the pain.
