“Ramsay is prepared to engage with the consortium to determine whether it can put forward an improved binding proposal that is capable of recommendation by the Ramsay board,” the statement said.ĭividends from the shareholding fund grants from The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia’s biggest charity by assets and among the top 50 philanthropic foundations globally. Ramsay Sante, which is chaired by Mr McNally, hasn’t granted due diligence to KKR.īut on Friday Ramsay, which is chaired by Michael Siddle, said the company will continue to hold discussions with KKR and its consortium partners, including Australia’s HESTA and sovereign wealth funds Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The company said it considered the alternate proposal to be “meaningfully inferior”, due to its complexity and the illiquidity of Ramsay Sante shares. On Thursday night, Ramsay updated the market that it had received a n alternative proposal from KKR and its consortium which allows Ramsay investors to keep shares in the Euronext-listed Ramsay Sante, of which Ramsay owns 53 per cent. The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column revealed the $88 a share offer had been formally pulled in a letter sent to the Ramsay board on Friday morning, in a move that will put pressure on the company to consider a cash and scrip deal. “We’ve got some other work to do post this,” he said. Ramsay did not provide earnings guidance, after reporting its 2022 earnings had been heavily impacted by the pandemic.Īs he wound up the earnings call, Mr McNally made a passing reference to the takeover talks, which if successful, would be this year’s largest deal which values Ramsay at nearly $30 billion including debt. Instead, he told investors the group’s growth outlook will be underpinned by pent-up demand for surgical and non-surgical activity and hurt by workforce issues.
Ramsay Health Care chief executive Craig McNally declined to comment about KKR’s offer to buy the group, choosing to focus on annual results. Ramsay chief executive Craig McNally conducted a near two-hour investor briefing without directly addressing the private equity offer, or any changes to it. The nation’s largest private hospital operator requested a trading pause, then a halt, on Friday as its chief executive briefed analysts on the 21 per cent fall in its full-year earnings to $891.2 million, and the receipt of a letter from KKR. KKR & Co and Ramsay Health Care are back at the negotiating table for the private hospital operator, after the private equity giant spectacularly upended Ramsay’s earnings results by pulling its indicative $88 a share all-cash bid in the middle of an investor briefing.