According to people familiar with the situation, a consortium led by private equity firm KKR & Co. has begun seeking investors to buy Ramsay Health Care Ltd’s A$8 billion ($5.8 billion) real estate assets as part of its bid to buy out the Australian hospital operator. According to the persons, the private equity group and its partners have sent out terms for a sale-and-leaseback agreement including Ramsay’s 72 hospital sites. They asked not to be identified because they were discussing confidential things. According to Bloomberg sources, KKR has approached pension funds and other institutional investors.
Following the tentative A$88 per share offer for the company, KKR has been in talks with Ramsay, which manages a network of private hospitals across Australia and Europe, since April to reach a binding agreement. If the consortium can reach an agreement on a sale-and-leaseback, it will be able to reduce its financing requirements for its bid for Ramsay, which has a market value of around $13 billion.
Any deal would be contingent on a number of factors, including that the KKR-led consortium successfully reach a recommended takeover offer from Ramsay’s board, the people said. Talks are at an early stage and there’s no guarantee it could lead to a transaction, they added. Representatives for KKR and Ramsay Health declined to comment.
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The New York-listed investment giant KKR & Co. earlier announced that it had closed a new credit fund focused on the Asia market, as it continued to expand in the area, where economic growth had proven exceptionally resilient since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
According to KKR, the new fund drew funding from new and current investors, including public and corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, commercial banks, insurance firms, asset managers and private investment groups, and family offices.
(With agency inputs)
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