A report from Mergermarket Group news service said the mergers and acquisitions value in Southeast US went up by 17% last year, The Tennessean reported. The biggest purchase of 2013 was made by Community Health Systems based in Franklin, the report said.

The survey showed that the 480 deals which involved firms in the region had a total worth of $73.6 billion, representing an increase from the 2012 value of $62.7 billion. In the Southeast, most of the mergers took place in the industrials and chemicals sector. The pharmaceutical, medical and biotechnology spaces ranked next as far as the number of mergers and acquisitions are concerned, the report said.

The acquisition of Florida-based Health Management Associates Inc by Community Health Systems led to the creation of the country's largest for-profit hospital. That deal was valued at $7.1 billion. As far as the number of facilities is concerned, CHS is now the biggest hospital operator. However, HCA which is based in Nashville is still the largest when it comes to revenue generated annually, the report said.

There are now 206 hospitals spread out in 29 states that are owned, leased or operated by CHS through its affiliates. These affiliates also employ over 135,000 people, with around 27,000 doctors on board their medical staffs, the report said.

Meanwhile, Texas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp's acquisition of Vanguard Health Systems based in Nashville is the third biggest deal of the year with a value of $4.1 billion, the report said.

Mergermarket Deputy Editor Marlene Star was quoted in the report as saying, "Valuations seem to be increasing, interest rates are still relatively low. There is lot of private equity money that is interested in investing. Those are things that bode well for growth."

The state in the Southeast which posted the largest growth in 2013 was Florida which had $34.7 billion deals. In Georgia, however, mergers and acquisitions activity declined 34% to $8.9 billion in that same period, the report said.