Who is Steve Francis, and Where Did He Make His Money

Steve Francis is the two-time San Diego Mayoral Candidate (2005 and 2008) who ran through over $5M running to unsuccessfully run for Mayor of San Diego. $5M is a big number to spend to boost your ego. Curious about where Steve got all that money, and how much he has now? Me too. With a little EDGAR we can learn about Steve and his money.

BACKGROUND
"Steven Francis co-founded our predecessor company, AMN Healthcare, Inc., in
1985. He has been an executive officer and director since 1985 and our President and Chief Executive Officer since June 1990. Prior to 1985, Mr. Francis served in several management positions in the hospitality industry. In addition, he served in the Nevada State Assembly from 1983 to 1987 and was elected as the Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987."

When Steve served in Nevada, he was a Republican. Even though the Mayor of San Diego does not declare a party, Steve is considered to be aligned with the democrats because of his support from GLBT and unions. Here is some other local news discussing Steve's Nevada Republican views and his new SD views.

So, where did Steve get so much money, that he could spend $5M to run for office. Steve started AMN Healthcare in 1985 and built up his company from nothing to 629M annual revenue in 2004. During that time, Steve sold part of the company and owned 11% of the stock with over 3.2M shares of AMN.

Revenue in 2002 was $775M, and Steve needed to grow the revenue, so acquisition targets were evaluated, which included the MHA Group. To buy MHA, AMN made a bid of stock and cash.

In the April 14, 2005 SEC filing by AMN Healthcare to sell 9,250,000 share of stock, the stock offering filed with the SEC says "Following this offering, Steven Francis and the Francis Family Trust, a family trust of Steven Francis, will hold, either directly or indirectly, 3,283,271 restricted shares of our common stock or approximately 11.4% of the outstanding shares of our common stock. Subject to volume and manner of sale limitations, these shares can be sold pursuant to Rule 144 under the Securities Act. In addition, we have granted these stockholders registration rights as described in “Principal and Selling Stockholders—Registration Rights.” Sales of a substantial number of these shares of our common stock, or the perception that holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares, could depress the market price of our common stock."

On September 28, 2005, the Company granted Steven C. Francis stock options to purchase 100,000 shares at $15.47

AMN Healthcare had a closing price on April 14, 2005 of $15.90, which gave Steve and the Francis Family trusts a stock value of $52,204,008.90. That's a nice number to see on penultimate tax day, especially when you don't have to pay tax on it (for those who didn't take Principals of Accounting, you don't pay tax on gains until recognized).

A few months later in October 2005, AMN Healthcare, agrees to buy its competitor, Merritt, Hawkins and Associates (MHA) in a deal with 75% stock, and 25% cash. Click here to see the acquisition agreement.

On November 2, 2005, AMN Healthcare Services issued 2.3 million shares of its common stock and may issue up to an additional 0.8 million shares for payment to certain shareholders of Merritt, Hawkins and Associates (MHA) in connection with the acquisition. The purchase price is comprised of $160.0 million plus acquisition costs estimated to be $1.5 million, the assumption of $5.5 million of debt and an earn-out payment of up to $51.9 million of additional consideration based on the twelve months ended December 31, 2005 performance of MHA, of which $35 million is guaranteed.

For 2006, Steve was to "receive an annual base salary in 2006 of $350,000." On September 25, 2005, as the new stock was going to be issued, the company issued to Steve a "Stock Option Plan" whereby Steve received options on 100,000 shares of stock at $15.47 to prevent a dilution of his total ownership percentage in AMN.

The combined company would have proforma revenue of $889 million for the year ended June 30, 2005. The closing price on August 26, 2008 was $18.54, giving Steve a net worth of over $60M.