Option Care Health Jumps 33 Percent to $31 After McKesson and CD&R Agree to Take It Private for $5.8 Billion

Option Care Health shares jumped 33 percent on Tuesday after McKesson and private-equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice agreed to take the infusion-therapy company private for about $5.8 billion, including debt.

The stock traded at $31.02, up $7.65, or 32.73 percent. In premarket trading it was up 33 percent at $31.11. The offer is $32.05 a share, a 37.1 percent premium to Monday's close. The shares are trading just under the cash price, the usual gap for a deal that still has to close.

CD&R will hold a majority stake. McKesson will invest about $1.4 billion for roughly 49 percent and will have the right to buy CD&R's 51 percent later. Option Care will remain a separate company, led by its own management, the companies said. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

The agreement follows a Financial Times report on Monday that the two sides were in advanced talks and could announce a deal as soon as Tuesday. Option Care shares had already risen in after-hours trading on that report, about 21 percent, before the terms were confirmed. Tuesday's move is the confirmation, not the rumor.

Option Care is the largest U.S. provider of home and alternate-site infusion, the business of delivering drugs that have to be given intravenously outside a hospital. McKesson already distributes specialty drugs and runs an oncology and multispecialty segment that includes infusion. That segment reported $14.2 billion of revenue in the latest quarter, up 33 percent from a year earlier, helped by specialty distribution and acquisitions. Buying a minority stake in the provider, with a path to full ownership, extends the distributor into the service rather than only the box.

The structure splits control and capital. CD&R takes the majority and the private-equity operating role. McKesson puts up $1.4 billion and keeps an option on the rest, so it does not have to consolidate a $5.8 billion buyout on day one. For Option Care shareholders, the exit is cash at $32.05 after a stock that had fallen about 27 percent this year and traded as if the growth case had stalled. The premium is real against Monday's close. It is also a price set by a buyer who can wait until 2027 to own the rest.

Risks are the standard ones on a signed deal that has not closed. Regulators can review a distributor taking a large stake in a therapy provider. Shareholders can vote no if they think $32.05 is light. Financing and the first-half-2027 timetable can slip. The stock at $31 prices a high probability of closing and a small discount for the wait, not a competing bid.

McKesson has been adding health-care services around distribution. CD&R has been buying care businesses, including other home-health assets. Option Care is the overlap: infusion at home, a recurring revenue stream tied to specialty drugs McKesson already moves. The market's answer on Tuesday was to take the shares from the low $20s to just under the offer. The rest of the return, if it comes, is the 3 percent between $31.02 and $32.05, paid when the deal closes.