Icon Group sale to EQT will see Cathie Reid and Stuart Giles’ $2 company turns into $375m windfall

The Brisbane couple who founded Icon Group a decade ago, have cashed in the last of their shares as they go in pursuit of new ventures.

Rich listers Cathie Reid and Stuart Giles are walking away with a $125m payday now after selling the remaining stake on Thursday in the health care giant they founded in Brisbane a decade ago.

Icon Group, which operates cancer health clinics around the globe, has been sold by its majority owners QIC and Goldman Sachs for a reported $2.5bn to Swedish private equity group EQT.

The Australian’s DataRoom column first revealed EQT had been shortlisted to purchase Icon in September. Last week, DataRoom reported the Swedish private equity firm was in the final stages of the sales process.

Under the deal, Ms Reid and her husband Mr Giles, who own approximately 5 percent of Icon, will also exit the company.

It comes after the couple sold their majority stake in Icon about five years ago to QIC and Goldman Sachs for an undisclosed amount believed to be around $250m, bringing their total reward to $375m.

Mr Giles said following the sale to EQT, the couple would now focus on their investments in health and technology through their new fund HEAL Partners.

“It has been 10 years since I registered Icon as a $2 company so the end result has been amazing but not something either of us expected,” said Mr Giles.

“It has not just been Cathie and I who have paved the way to success, but the team of talented doctors, nurses and other staff who have been with us along the way.”

Icon Group founders Cathie Reid and Stuart Giles, Picture: Mark Cranitch

QIC principal in global private capital Crystal Russell said it had been an honour to work alongside Ms Reid and Mr Giles and the Icon team.

“They’ve built a highly successful company and an incredible legacy,” she said. “We look forward to continuing to build the next Queensland success story.”

Ms Russell added the exit timing for QIC was right given the domestic and global growth of the company and its ability to attract a new investor to support Icon’s next phase of growth.

Mr Giles also said Icon was now poised for further growth under its new owners, particularly in the Asia Pacific. “There comes a time for each founder of a business to make an exit rather like when you realise the children have to leave home,” said Mr Giles.

“Our focus has always been on the health objective rather than the financials. The best quality care close to home.”

Ms Reid said she could have easily settled into a life as a corner store chemist after completing a pharmacy degree at Monash University in 1990.

Instead, after meeting Mr Giles, a fellow pharmacy graduate, the couple embarked on building two highly successful healthcare businesses Icon and Epic Pharmacy,

Mr Giles said the family will remain in Queensland, dividing their time between their partly-owned Makepeace Island near Noosa, the Gold Coast holiday home and Brisbane.

“It is going to be an exciting time for south-east Queensland over the next decade in the lead up to the Olympics,” he said. Ms Reid is planning to be one of the first space tourists aboard Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space ship in the next couple of years,