Health Care Veteran Returns to Fitch After Stint at Raymond James

Health care veteran Jim Mitchell has rejoined Fitch Ratings as part of the business and relationship management team.

Mitchell returns to the rating agency after a nine-month stint as a director at Raymond James. At Fitch, he now reports to Ann Flynn, head of the business and relationship management teams for U.S. public finance as well as global infrastructure and project finance.

"There are tremendous opportunities for Fitch to make a difference in the health care sector," Flynn said. "And in this uncertain and volatile time, credit analysis is very important. Jim brings a good perspective to Fitch's business relationship group, understanding the credit pressures and challenges in the health care sector and his strong relationships in the Southeast region. We expect to add credits in both these sectors."

In his new duties as a senior director, Mitchell works out of in Tampa, Fla., and is responsible for developing and maintaining business relationships for the agency's national public health care group and the tax-supported group in the Southeast.

Mitchell will be talking with potential and current clients, including bankers, issuers and financial advisors, about the values of a Fitch rating.

Mitchell is not new to business development at Fitch as he was on the relationship management team for the national heath care sector before he left for Raymond James last November.

He also worked in the U.S. public finance health care group where he analyzed and rated hospital and senior living credits.He has been in the tax-exempt bond market for about 27 years.

Before joining Fitch in 2003, Mitchell worked at Cain Brothers as a research analyst on continuing care retirement communities.

He was also a research analyst at Ziegler Capital Markets Group where he supported sales, trading, and investment banking. He also worked as a research analyst in the health care group at MBIA Inc.

The health care sector is in the midst of change, as the impact of federal health care reform has yet to be fully played out on the state and local level. And partly due to this uncertainty, Mitchell expects to see more mergers and acquisitions in the health care sector.

"I think you're seeing more mergers and acquisitions activity going on right now than standard project finance," he said. "With the uncertainty over health care reform and the uncertainty in the political environment that exists, some health care systems are being more cautious about taking on big capital projects."

And indeed, as of Aug. 17, health care sector bond issuance was down 43% for the year to date from last year, with roughly $12.7 billion coming to market, down from last year's $22.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Mergers and acquisitions have been picking up, particularly within single hospitals.

"If you look out into the foreseeable future and try to identify a particular set of hospitals that are more at risk, it would be the stand-alone, lower-rated hospitals," Mitchell said. "And in this competitive market, those hospitals will probably need to look to merge with a bigger player."

In the past year, downgrades in the health care sector by Fitch outpaced upgrades.

For 2010 and the first quarter 2011, Fitch upgraded 22 health care credits and downgraded 25.

The rating agency also put 21 credits on negative watch, while putting only 16 on positive watch.

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Healthcare industry
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