Healthscope Ltd, the second-biggest private hospital operator in Australia, made an official statement today, revealing that it and its private equity owners are seeking to raise a total of 2.57 billion Australian dollars, or about 2.4 billion US dollars, in the companys initial public offering (IPO).
According to Healthscopes statement, the company intends to sell 1.12 billion to 1.28 billion shares at the price of 1.76 to 2.29 Australian dollars. The IPO is expected to increase Healthscopes market capitalization to about 3.8 billion Australian dollars.
The companys owners, Carlyle Group LP and TPG Capital, will keep a combined stake of 25 to 40% after the sale.
The move is taking place as investor demand for stocks of healthcare companies grows. Currently, Healthscope Ltd runs a total of 41 private hospitals on the territory of the country, but it also holds a pathology business on the territory of New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
“Australia has an aging population and an increasingly unhealthy population, with long waiting lists at public hospitals,” Joshua Ross, analyst at Watermark Funds Management, commented for the Wall Street Journal.
The IPO of Healthscope will probably be the largest first-time share-sale in the country since October 2010 when the listing of the rail operator Aurizon Holdings Ltd raised about 4.3 billion Australian dollars.
Healthscope Ltd posted a net profit estimated at 20.7 million Australian dollars for the six months ending February 2014. It also announced that the revenues amounted to 1.2 billion Australian dollars. The performance over the first half of the financial year was more than satisfactory in comparison to the 109 million-Australian dollar net loss posted over the same period of time a year earlier.
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