Icon Group has tapped Jefferies Australia for an upcoming sale or float of the country’s largest cancer care provider Icon Group.
Jefferies will join Goldman Sachs in working on a divestment.
Jefferies Australia is run by Michael Stock, who worked on the sale of Icon Group while he was at Credit Suisse, while Goldman Sachs owns a stake in the business.
Expectations are that Icon will sell for more than $2 billion.
Icon, which is chaired by Sonic Healthcare chairman Mark Compton, was sold by Quadrant Private Equity in 2017 to a consortium including Queensland Investment Corporation, Goldman Sachs Private Equity and China’s Pagoda Investments for $1.2bn.
It operates 30 cancer care centres across Australia, delivering a mix of radiation therapy, chemotherapy and blood disorder treatment for patients.
It also operates through Asia and in New Zealand.
Some say that the company has had success rolling out its growth strategy in China where it has about six sites.
The understanding is that annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of the business have since doubled from the time it was purchased in 2017, when it was making about $80m.
The country’s largest private hospital operator, Ramsay Healthcare, is considered an interested buyer, and are understood to have already held talks.
The private hospital group is understood to be interested in expanding its pharmacy business and Icon is thought to be attractive because of its compound pharmacy business, selling drugs not available over the counter.
The sale of Icon comes at a time that healthcare businesses remain in strong demand by private equity investors, while equity investors are also expected to find the business appealing.
Last year, Quadrant Private Equity achieved a strong price for the sale of its Qscan Radiology Clinics business, which was picked up by Infratil and Morrison & Co for $735m.
Jefferies has landed the mandate after recently working on the float of Latitude Financial.
The current market is creating a number of lucrative opportunities for investment bankers right now, as merger and acquisition activity heats up.
Boral is expected to announce a move to appoint Jarden Australia as its defence adviser next week after it received a $7.9bn takeover bid from Seven Group Holdings, valuing the company at $6.50 per share.
Boral’s shares are currently trading at about $6.77.
Add your comment to this story
Bellevue buy too challenging for Regis
Regis is understood to have backed out of the contest to buy rival gold miner Bellevue, but there are still potential suitors hovering.
CIMIC looking to cut debt with UGL sale
Investment bank Macquarie Capital is understood to have launched plans to sell UGL’s $1bn transport division, with two high profile private equity firms believed to be interested.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout