MultiPlan (NYSE: MPLN) shares went down over 20% before ending at to $7.01 on Wednesday. This dive comes after Muddy Waters Research releases a short report titled “MultiPlan: Private Equity Necrophilia Meets The Great 2020 Money Grab.” The Muddy Waters report says Mutiplan is about to lose UnitedHealthcare, its largest customer as they formed a competing product called Naviguard. It’s reported that Naviguard has “significantly lower prices and fewer conflicts of interest.” It’s estimated that Naviguard will decrease MultiPlan’s 2022E revenue by 35% and FCF by 80% while net leverage “balloons” to over 8x, estimates the short seller.
MultiPlan merged with Churchill Capital Corp III in early October to become MultiPlan Corporation. They recently announced that it has acquired HST, a healthcare technology company that enables value-based health benefit plan designs, for a purchase price of $140M.