Six years ago, the private hospital group acquired a 29.9% stake in Spire, which is one of the UK’s largest hospital groups. The strategy was for Mediclinic to take advantage of demand for private healthcare, since the state’s National Health Service (NHS) was in a budget crunch. In 2017, Mediclinic followed up the transaction with an offer to purchase the entire business, but its £1.2 billion offer was rebuffed by Spire for being too low. Fast forward to 2021 and Mediclinic is ready to sell its stake in Spire to Ramsay Health Care, an Australian company. The possible transaction, which was announced on Monday, would result in Ramsay acquiring 100% of Spire for 249 pence per share, and Mediclinic walking away with £287.8m (about R5.6 billion) for its share Spire share.

Source: News 24 May 29, 2021 03:00 UTC