Brookfield places a $3.3bn bid to acquire Australia’s Healthscope
Australian healthcare provider Healthscope has revealed that it has received a new $3.3bn proposal from Canadian investment company Brookfield Asset Management, surpassing a local buyout proposal.
A potential deal with Healthscope and Brookfield would make the acquisition one of the largest healthcare takeovers by a Canadian company to date.
Shares have risen to a two-year high at 4.9% and will now see the start of a potential bidding war between BGH Capital and AustralianSuper, who partnered last month to prepare a joint proposal of $3.1bn in a new consortium.
“All members of the consortium will reject, vote against or not accept any proposal for the acquisition of Healthscope shares that may be put forward by any other party,” the duo have stated in a joint statement.
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At present, AustralianSuper has over 15% stake in Healthscope, and has previously stated that it would disregard any offers, even if they are larger than previous offers.
With this in mind, it will be interesting to see whether Brookfield will attempt to split the consortium by speaking directly with Healthscope’s board to pave the way for a potential deal. The company has stated that its offer will only be valid if AustralianSuper is prevented from voting against the move.
Interestingly, the news follows on from Northwest Healthcare’s recent 10% stake in Healthscope, which it acquired for $312mn.
Brookfield is presently being represented by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, whilst Healthscope has appointed UBS in its bid.
