The proposed transaction will take place pursuant to Section 363 of the US Bankruptcy Code and will be governed by a court-directed bidding process, subject to applicable regulatory, company and court approvals.
CBay’s subsidiaries, MedQuist and CBay, have entered into a ‘stalking horse’ purchase agreement with Spheris, whereby, subject to court approval, MedQuist will acquire the company’s North American business, and CBay will acquire the stock of Spheris India Private Limited (Spheris India), a subsidiary of Spheris.
Spheris is based in Franklin, Tennessee, and has operations in North America and India. The transaction is expected to allow Spheris’ customers to benefit both from an industry-leading technology platform offered by CBay’s group company MedQuist and the integration of Spheris India with CBay’s Indian subsidiary, CBay Systems (India), one of India’s largest healthcare business processing outsourcing (BPO) companies.
Raman Kumar, vice chairman and CEO of Cbay, said: “Spheris India will be a great addition to our India operations and will enhance our delivery capability in providing additional processing capacity, superior coverage and quality documentation to our customers. CBay India is ranked as a leading employer of high quality medical language specialists and with this acquisition CBay will further solidify its leadership position and enhance our ability to provide best-in-class service to our clients.”
If the CBay purchase agreement is approved and the conditions therein satisfied, it is expected that the transaction will be completed in the first half of 2010.