HCA says KKR and Bain will sell 50M shares

HCA Holdings says investors including Bain and KKR will sell up to 50M of its shares

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Hospital operator HCA Holdings Inc. said Monday that a group of investors plan to sell up to 50 million shares of its stock.

HCA said most of the shares will be sold by the private equity funds Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Bain Capital Partners. HCA won't get any proceeds from the sale, which is expected to close Friday.

As of December, Bain and KKR each owned 74.2 million shares of HCA. That gave them 16.8 percent stakes in the company, according to FactSet.

Bain and KKR were among the firms that took HCA private in 2006. They were joined by Merrill Lynch and the Frist family, which co-founded the company. HCA went public again in March 2011 with an initial public offering valued at $3.79 billion, which made for the largest private equity-backed IPO in history.

The largest shareholder in HCA is Thomas Frist Jr., who founded the company with his father Thomas Sr. and Jack Massey. Frist Jr. is a former chairman and CEO of HCA, and he owns about 78 million shares. His brother, former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, and his son Thomas III both sit on HCA's board of directors.

Shares of HCA lost 56 cents to $36.66 on Monday and declined 66 cents to $36 in aftermarket trading.