Canada's NorthWest Healthcare Properties buys rights to 10 pct stake in Healthscope (updated)

Vital Healthcare Property Trust

08/05/2018 02:57

(Adds details on stake, Healthscope share movement)
    May 8 (Reuters) - Canada's NorthWest Healthcare Properties
REIT  NWH_u.TO  on Tuesday said it acquired rights to a 10
percent stake in Australia's Healthscope Ltd  HSO.AX , less than
two weeks after the hospitals' operator received a $3.1 billion
takeover bid from a consortium led by an Australian private
equity firm.
    The acquisition, at A$2.39 per Healthscope share, values the
stake at about A$416 million ($313.04 million). The rights to
the stake were obtained through a  derivative offered by
Deutsche Bank AG, the Canadian company said in a statement.
    Healthscope was the subject of a $3.1 billion takeover
approach from private equity firm BGH Capital and its consortium
partners last month.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1S26UE
    "An acquisition of Healthscope's underlying hospital related
real estate is of interest to NWH and Vital Healthcare Property
Trust in line with their long term strategy to invest in
healthcare real estate assets in the Australasian market,"
NorthWest Healthcare Properties said.
    New Zealand-listed Vital Healthcare Property Trust  VHP.NZ 
is an associated entity of NorthWest Healthcare Properties, and
the companies plan to pursue any potential Healthscope real
estate deal jointly.
    Shares of Healthscope rose as much as 4.2 percent, while the
broader market  .AXJO  was up 0.4 percent.
    The stock was issued at A$2.10 in a 2014 initial public
offering.
     Healthscope and BGH Capital weren't available for immediate
comment.
($1 = 1.3289 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
 ((chris.thomas@thomsonreuters.com; +91-80-6749-8695; Reuters
Messaging: chris.thomas.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))