Without fail, Robert Cooke would begin every meeting with a joke. Then, in his trademark disarming style, he would ditch the script and introduce fund managers to Healthscope – the private hospital, pathology and medical centre operator that listed on Monday with a market value of $3.6 billion.

The chief executive’s habit of avoiding the slide deck and moving straight to a chat drove his accompanying bankers crazy. To be fair, it was not the approach private equity vendors TPG and The Carlyle Group preferred either. But the funds would have known what to expect. TPG’s co-head of Asia Ben Gray had first-hand experience of Cooke’s informal style.