Healthy line-up of buyers for Cura contest

Cura is owned by Germany’s Fresenius and generates annual earnings of about $42m EBITDA.

In the latest update on the sale process for Cura Group, it is understood that up to six parties are in the data room as part of the first round of the contest, and a couple of new names that might be in the mix are Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Medibank Private.

Bids for the day hospital provider are due at the end of the month. Binding offers are due in early December, when about two or three parties are scheduled to be short-listed.

The contest favourites so far are seen as Intermediate Capital Group, Partners Group and Pacific Equity Partners, while Ramsay Health Care is also bidding, as earlier flagged by this column.

Queensland Investment Corp is also thought to be bidding, but there are questions as to whether it is serious.

Investment bank Citi is working on the sale process.

Cura is owned by Germany’s Fresenius. The business has been identified as non-core by the global healthcare provider.

Cura is understood to generate about $42m of annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

Fresenius Medical Care purchased a 70 per cent stake in Cura in 2017 from Intermediate Capital for a price believed to value it at more than $400m.

It is the largest day hospital owner in Australia, with 19 assets.

The sale is one of the few active processes in the market, at a time when healthcare providers are facing higher costs and challenges attracting staff, and across the private equity spectrum more broadly buyers and sellers are apart on price.

It will be interesting to see if Medibank emerges.

The health insurer has bought short-stay hospital assets before as part of its strategy to reduce healthcare costs to customers while also reducing medical insurance expenses and offering a shorter stay for patients.