Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare and Sunway are among three contenders in the race to acquire Penang-based Island Hospital from pan-Asian private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The hospital is being valued at over $800m, and a second round of bids is expected soon. According to a WSJ source, the third bidder is an Asia-based sponsor with experience in the healthcare sector.
A deal with Affinity Equity Partners is expected to complete by Q3 2024.
Island Hospital, established in 1996, is a 600-bed facility offering specialty services including cardiology, clinical oncology, pediatrics and plastic surgery. It also has a medical-tourism program serving patients across Southeast Asia.
IHH Healthcare, one of the largest global healthcare networks, operates more than 80 hospitals in 10 countries, including China, Turkey, India and the Netherlands. Sunway, a Malaysian conglomerate, runs three hospitals in Malaysia with a combined capacity of 1,730 beds.
The sale of Island Hospital, originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic, has gained renewed traction following the $1.2bn sale of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care to TPG-backed Columbia Asia in November.
Previous similarly sized transactions in the healthcare sector include the 2019 acquisition of Columbia Asia Hospitals in Southeast Asia by TPG and Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong Group, valued at $1.2bn.
Affinity Equity Partners manages $14bn in assets across five offices in Asia and has investments in 11 countries, including South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group, Indonesian video-streaming service Vidio, Australian food-and-beverage company Prime Foods and New Zealand’s Tegel Foods.
