The $82bn Perth-based conglomerate Wesfarmers and the $78bn financial Macquarie Group are the latest names to emerge as a keen competitors for the $3bn diagnostic imaging business I-MED that is about to hit the market.
It comes after Wesfarmers is understood to have carried out detailed analysis of the country’s largest diagnostic imaging provider I-MED as it keeps a keen focus on the healthcare industry for acquisitions.
It recently appointed Kate Munnings as a director, the former boss of IVF provider Virtus Health and chief operating officer of Ramsay Healthcare.
No doubt acquisitions in healthcare will be a line of questioning when Wesfarmers, which owns retail brands including Target, Kmart and Officeworks, is due to report its full year results on August 29.
Meanwhile, Macquarie Group would look at I-MED through its infrastructure arm Macquarie Asset Management and is believed to be keen to partner with a party to assess the opportunity.
Previously, Macquarie has worked with Medibank on deals in the healthcare space, but in this instance, but that’s not thought to be the case in this instance.
The share price of Wesfarmers has been soaring and it has made great strides in more deeply penetrating the healthcare space, buying Priceline pharmacy chain owner Australian Pharmaceutical Industries for $763m in 2022 to seed its healthcare unit, run by former Bupa Australia health insurance boss Emily Amos.
It continues to assess Ramsay Healthcare as a takeover target at the right value.
Whether it moves forward on a deal and beats other infrastructure funds and private equity groups to buy the business is another matter.
DataRoom revealed that Morgan Stanley was poised to be hired to sell I-MED, with Bain Capital and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners interested suitors and Jefferies Australia is also now advising.
A number of other global private equity firms are also lining up to take a look, say sources.
I-MED is understood to be forecast to generate about $250m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Permira purchased I-MED in 2018 for $1.3bn, or 11 times its earnings from EQT.
It has more than 230 clinics across Australia.
In 2021, market analysts suspected that I-MED could sell for about 14 times its EBITDA, but it’s now a different market where diagnostic imaging, like all areas of the healthcare industry, has been working hard to get costs down and increase earnings.
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