Kwarkot/iStock via Getty ImagesMedical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPW) stock was halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday at 1:50 PM ET, for news pending. At about 2:26 PM ET, the company issued a statement to clarify issues brought up in a Wall Street Journal story published earlier on Friday. Medical Properties Trust (MPW) called the regulatory hold on Prospect Medical’s PHP subsidiary refinancing transaction “a standard, expected, and non-controversial part of the approval process for this transaction.” The hold indicated that “certain additional information is required prior to the issuance of final approval from the DMHC (California Department of Management Health Care), which the Company fully expects to obtain in due course.” In addition, MPW said it was advised that it’s highly unlikely that the regulators won’t approve the transaction once they get the required information. Until the transaction is approved, Medical Properties (MPW) investment in PHP Holdings would remain a convertible note with identical economics to equity ownership. “As a result, DMHC’s request was deemed immaterial to MPT’s financials and thus did not require disclosure,” the company said. It also noted that recording its $68M equity investment in PHP as revenue in Q2 “as fully consistent with accounting requirements and was entirely unrelated to the DMHC approval process.” The WSJ reporter’s “attempt to conflate the two matters has no basis in fact,” Medical Properties (MPW). Update at 2:45 PM ET: Trading of MPW shares have resumed. The stock fell 10% at 2:47 PM. Before the halt, its shares had dropped 15%. More on Medical Properties
