A Chinese-owned health operator is proposing a complete buy-out of Pulse Health, a company that counts the Bega Valley Private Hospital as one of its facilities across eastern Australia and New Zealand.
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Healthe Care Australia intends to acquire 100 per cent of Pulse shares, a deal that has the unanimous support of the Pulse board.
The deal is proposed for $0.47 a share, putting a value on Pulse of approximately $121million. The acquisition has the unanimous support of the Pulse board and has been given the all-clear by the ACCC.
A shareholders meeting to discuss the proposed purchase was scheduled for Wednesday this week. However it has been postponed to allow more time “for Pulse to provide, and shareholders to consider and assess, the implications of the transaction detailed in an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday, March 20”.
It will be put to shareholders at a meeting on May 1 in Sydney.
According to a report to the ASX dated February 28, 2017, Pulse valued its group revenue for the first half of the 2016/17 financial year at $49.5million.
In a statement on its website Pulse announced “the board continues to unanimously recommend that in the absence of a superior proposal, Pulse shareholders vote in favour of the scheme”.
“As at the date of this announcement, no superior proposal has emerged, accordingly the Pulse directors intend to vote all Pulse shares held or controlled by them in favour of the scheme.”
Pulse CEO Phillipa Blakey said the buyout is unlikely to affect the running of its hospitals like Bega Valley.
“It is expected to be business as usual for the hospitals,” she told Fairfax Media.
“Healthe Care has no current intentions to make major changes to the business and intends to support Pulse in continuing to operate its business largely consistent with existing plans.
“It’s too early to say whether or not additional services might be offered [at Bega Valley Private Hospital]. That would be a matter for Healthe Care once it has been able to review the business.”
The announcement by Pulse follows news this week Healthe Care is acquiring three private hospitals in the Illawarra in a transaction believed to be worth more than $50million.
Evolution Healthcare has agreed to sell Wollongong Day Surgery, Shellharbour Private Hospital and South Coast Private Hospital to Healthe Care.
In a memo to hospital staff last Friday, Evolution’s managing director Ben Thynne and executive chairman Andrew Savage said they had thought “long and hard” about the decision to sell.
“We strongly believe that our hospitals and staff will benefit from being part of a larger national group like Healthe Care who are extremely well placed to take on the challenges ahead,” they stated in the memo.
“Having been closely involved with Healthe Care previously, we are also comfortable that they offer the best cultural fit for our Illawarra hospitals.”
Mr Thynne founded Healthe Care in 2006, while Mr Savage became a director of the company in 2007. Now the third largest private hospital operator in Australia, the company was sold to China’s Luye Medical Group in December 2015.