Opinion ID: 2197655
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The 2006 Leveraged Buyout

Text: The trial court found that the 2006 LBO did not trigger the ROFR because a transfer of the hospital's assets simply did not occur  either directly or indirectly  during the . . . LBO in 2006. HCA-NH owns the assets of Portsmouth Regional Hospital today, just as it has since 1983. Because we conclude that neither HCA3 nor HCA-NH acted, however, we need not decide whether the trial court properly found that the hospital's assets were not transferred, either directly or indirectly, during the 2006 LBO. See EnergyNorth Natural Gas v. Continental Ins. Co., 146 N.H. 156, 165, 781 A.2d 969 (2001) (We will not overrule the trial court's grant of summary judgment where it reached the right result, albeit on mistaken grounds. (quotation omitted)). In the 2006 LBO, the public shareholders of HCA Inc. approved a leveraged buy-out whereby all public shares in HCA Inc. were sold to private investors. HCA Inc. is the corporate great-grandparent of HCA-NH and an entirely distinct entity from HCA3. See Maryville Hotel Assocs. I, LLC v. IHC/Maryville Hotel Corp., No. 4:05 CV 1493 DDN, 2006 WL 1237264, at  (E.D.Mo. May 5, 2006) (refusing to find that the corporate defendant . . . acted to sell[ ] or transfer[ ] property interests because its corporate grandparent did so). Moreover, HCA Inc. itself did not act; it was HCA Inc.'s shareholders who acted in the leveraged buy-out. These facts are not disputed. Thus, neither HCA3 nor HCA-NH acted in the 2006 LBO, and, as explained above, the ROFR was not triggered. See White Wave, Inc. v. Dean Foods Company, No. CIV.A. 01-M-1073, 2001 WL 1833980 (D.Colo. Dec.5, 2001); Maryville Hotel, 2006 WL 1237264, at -. Accordingly, the defendants are entitled to summary judgment on all counts involving the 2006 LBO and the Foundation's motion for partial summary judgment was properly denied.