Chinese billionaire Tianqiao Chen and a group of companies in which he is sole or majority owner reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month that they now own about 11.3 million shares, or 9.9 percent, of Community Health Systems Inc., the big Tennessee-based hospital network operator that owns Rockwood Health System here. 

Days later, Chen added another 88,000 CHS shares to boost the holdings to an even 10 percent, making him the largest investor in CHS. 

Chen, who is reported to have made his initial fortune in online gambling, also is board president and co-founder of Shanghai-based video game developer Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. 

Companies named in the SEC filing along with Chen included Shanda Media Ltd., Shanda Investment Group Ltd., Shanda Technology Overseas Capital Company Ltd., and Shanda Asset Management Holdings Ltd.

Modern Healthcare, a print and online provider of health care business news, research, and data, reported that at the start of this year, hedge fund Glenview Capital Management was CHS’ largest shareholder, with 9.8 percent of all shares. 

The publication said that despite having previously promoted the sale of hospital network operator Health Management Associates to CHS in 2014, Glenview decided to sell its entire CHS stake in the first quarter after losing faith that HMA’s 60-plus hospitals could be made to fit profitably into the larger company, it said.

That left Boston-based Wellington Management as CHS’ top shareholder with 11.3 million shares, until Chen came along this month, it said.

As the Journal reported earlier this month, CHS posted a $1.43 billion second-quarter loss this month, compared with net income of $111 million for the same period last year. The company attributed the loss to a noncash write-down of goodwill on the sinking value of hospitals it had acquired over the years. 

CHS also has struggled to gain control of operating problems, particularly at the 61 hospitals it acquired for $3.9 billion in 2014 as part of Health Management Associates. 

Some of those hospitals were divested in April, with the spinoff of 38 rural hospitals into a new publically traded company, Quorum Health Corp. 

CHS is working on five transactions to shed another 12 underperforming hospitals and raise $850 million to retire debt. 

Although it declines to name the hospitals that are for sale, CHS has stated those hospitals are generally underperforming.