BGH-led group makes $3.1b bid for Australia's Healthscope

The offer would represent the first investment made by BGH, which is expected to close its debut fund in the near term after setting a hard cap of A$2.5 billion in January. BGH was set up by Ben Gray, who served as an executive at TPG Capital when it acquired Healthscope in 2010 for A$1.99 billion alongside The Carlyle Group. Both TPG and Carlyle exited the company in 2015, having taken it public the previous year in an IPO that valued it at A$3.83 billion.

According to a filing, the consortium is offering A$2.36 per share for Healthscope, a premium of 16% to the April 25 closing price of A$2.03. The company's share price jumped following the announcement of the offer, opening on April 26 at A$2.35, and was trading around A$2.30 at midday. AustralianSuper currently holds a 14% stake in Healthscope, acquired over several transactions since last year.

Healthscope's board has begun its assessment of the privatization proposal, which is subject to various regulatory and other approvals. In addition, Healthscope must not sell or agree to sell any material asset of the company before the conclusion of the offer.

Healthscope operates 45 hospitals across Australia and 63 pathology laboratories in New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. According to the most recent annual report, as of June 2017, the company employed over 17,000 doctors and 18,000 other employees. For the 12 months ended June 2017, Healthscope reported A$418 million in revenue, up from A$392 million for the previous year; over the same period net profit grew from A$324 million to A$331 million.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Healthcare
• Buyouts
• Australia
• BGH Capital
• GIC Private
• OTPP
• CPPIB