Australia’s Ramsay Health Care Ltd. and Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd. have agreed to sell their hospital unit to Columbia Asia Healthcare Sdn. for 5.7 billion ringgit ($1.2 billion), according to a stock exchange filing.
The companies will sell all their stakes in Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care Sdn., which operates four hospitals in Malaysia and three in Indonesia, a Friday filing to Malaysia’s stock exchange shows, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Sime Darby will get a 2 billion ringgit gain on the disposal.
“The offer from Columbia Asia was one we could not refuse,” Sime Darby’s Group Chief Executive Officer Jeffri Salim Davidson said in a press statement. “While the hospital business is a great asset, we have always maintained our focus on our core trading businesses of motors and industrial.”
Columbia Asia’s main shareholders, TPG Inc. and conglomerate Hong Leong Group, are providing capital for the acquisition along with co-investors including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund. The transaction is expected to be completed in the quarter ending March 2024.
The successful sale caps the sellers’ revived efforts in divesting the joint venture after discussions with Kuala Lumpur-listed IHH Healthcare Bhd. collapsed last year. Sime Darby said this week that it expects to conclude the sale toward the end of 2023, saying there’s a tremendous amount of interest in the asset.
Founded in 2013, Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care was set up to hold Sime Darby and Ramsay Health’s combined portfolio of hospitals in Southeast Asia. The Australian and Malaysian owners hold equal stakes in the venture.
Columbia Asia and its subsidiaries have 22 medical facilities across Asia with 14 of them in Malaysia, the statement shows.
--With assistance from Nicolas Parasie, Ram Anand and Liau Y-Sing.
(Updates throughout with official confirmation.)
