TPG-backed firm frontrunner to buy Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care for $1.5 bln - sources

Ramsay Health Care

07/11/2023 09:23

By Yantoultra Ngui
       SINGAPORE, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Columbia Asia, a Southeast
Asian healthcare firm backed by TPG, has emerged as the
frontrunner to buy Malaysia-based private hospitals operator
Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care for around $1.5 billion, said two
sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
    The acquisition will be the largest Southeast Asian
healthcare acquisition since 2019 when Malaysian conglomerate
Hong Leong Group and alternative asset firm TPG bought Columbia
Asia's assets for about $1.2 billion.
    Started in 1996, Columbia Asia currently has 22 medical
facilities in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia and focuses on
building mid-size hospitals in residential areas, according to
its website. 
    The firm is competing with a consortium comprising of Hong
Kong-based private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners and
Indonesia-based hospital operator Mitra Keluarga  MIKA.JK  in
the final round of the bidding process for the Asia-focused
healthcare joint venture of Australia's Ramsay Health Care
 RHC.AX  and Malaysia's Sime Darby  SIME.KL , according to the
sources. They declined to be named as the information remained
confidential.
    A deal could be concluded as early as within this week, the
sources said, cautioning that last-minute changes are possible.
    Ramsay, Australia's largest private hospitals operator, and
conglomerate Sime Darby had hired Bank of America  BAC.N  and
Deutsche Bank  DBKGn.DE  to advise on the sale, Reuters reported
in July. 
    Ramsay Sime Darby referred Reuters' request for comment to
Ramsay and Sime Darby. Ramsay, Deutsche Bank, TPG declined to
comment. 
    Sime Darby, Columbia Asia, Affinity Equity Partners, Mitra
Keluarga and Bank of America did not immediately respond to
requests seeking comment.
    The sale of Ramsay Sime Darby comes at a time when
healthcare assets are attracting more interest as investors bet
on the sector's ability to weather tough economic conditions.
    Ramsay Sime Darby was set up in 2013 through an equal joint
venture to expand both firms' healthcare business in Southeast
Asia. It has hospitals in Malaysia and Indonesia, including
Subang Jaya Medical Centre in Selangor and RS Premier Surabaya
in Jawa Timur. 
    An earlier effort to sell Ramsay Sime Darby to IHH
Healthcare  IHHH.KL  fell through last September, soon after a
KKR & Co Inc-led  KKR.N  consortium withdrew a near $15 billion
offer for Ramsay. 
    IHH, one of Asia's largest private healthcare groups, had
presented a 5.67 billion Malaysian ringgit ($1.21 billion) offer
for Ramsay Sime Darby, but a binding agreement could not be
reached.


($1 = 4.6680 ringgit)

 (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
 ((Yantoultra.Ngui@thomsonreuters.com;))