Corrs injects healthcare know-how
CORRS CHAMBERS Westgarth advised Healthe Care Australia and SAITeysMcMahon on the purchase of five hospitals from Ramsay Health Care Limited for more than $88 million, the sale concluding in
CORRS CHAMBERS Westgarth advised Healthe Care Australia and SAITeysMcMahon on the purchase of five hospitals from Ramsay Health Care Limited for more than $88 million, the sale concluding in late June this year.
The parcel of hospitals had to be sold by Ramsay for competition reasons after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission objected to the size of the company’s hospital portfolio.
“They were selling them because they bought the Affinity Group of hospitals earlier … which was the old Mayne hospital portfolio … and they had competition issues,” Corrs mergers and acquisitions partner Jeremy McCarthy said.
The sale of the hospitals included The Valley and South Eastern in Victoria, Lingard and North Gosford in New South Wales and Belmont in Queensland.
The Corrs’ team was lead by McCarthy and banking partner Patrick O'Grady, who were assisted by Adeline Poon, Peter Drake, Rebecca Strom and Megan Dreyer.
With extensive experience in the healthcare sector over more than a decade, McCarthy was perfectly suited to advise on the transaction.
“The interesting part of this was that some of the hospitals we bought I had actually looked at, or bid for, or sold, or bought for other parties in previous transactions as part of the consolidation of the healthcare industry,” McCarthy said.
The many late nights involved kept the Corrs’ team on their toes.
“One of the interesting issues was that our client ultimately put a midnight timeframe on their involvement in the deal. [I] ended up … getting a phone call after midnight, saying ‘we’re on — start preparing the documents for the morning’,” McCarthy said.
Blake Dawson Waldron acted for Ramsay in the sale. Mark Stanbridge, who was lead partner on the transaction, was aided by Michael Beaumont, Hannah McDougall, Edward Forsyth, Felicity Dougherty and Hanna Soderlindh.
“This was one of a number of transactions that we have undertaken for Ramsay Health Care over the last year,” Stanbridge said. “Ramsay is a major client for BDW and it is because of our team commitment and cross-practice capability that we partnered so successfully with Ramsay’s Board and management to close off this important transaction.”
Healthe Care purchased the hospital businesses and SAITeysMcMahon purchased the properties. Healthe Care is now the largest privately owned private hospital operator in Australia.