Street Talk

Meet the UK hedge fund emerging as Healthscope’s kingmaker

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

May 27, 2025 – 6.59pm

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As Healthscope slides into receivership after nearly 18 months of high-stakes negotiations, it’s not local deals junkie David Di Pilla who is calling the shots but a secretive London-based hedge fund.

Street Talk can reveal Polus’ dealmakers are expected to land in Australia next week to meet with key decision makers at Healthscope, after cornering about $300 million of its $1.6 billion debt. That holding makes it one of Healthscope’s biggest lenders – miles ahead of rivals like Josh Friedman’s Canyon Partners which owns about $50 million to $100 million – and gives it considerable weight in the vote that would be needed to approve or block any asset sales from the receivership.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.