Bidders to deliver offers for Smiles

THE two parties vying to buy failed Gold Coast dental group Smiles Inclusive are private equity group Genesis Capital and Alex Abrahams, the cofounder of dental giant Pacific Smiles.

The Bulletin understands the two bidders, which lodged binding offers for the company by the December 18 deadline set by the administrators, will present their offers to dentists and jointventure partners on Wednesday.

The administrators are hoping to finalise a deal with one of the two parties by mid-January next year.

Smiles Inclusive trades as Totally Smiles and fell into administration in November after being unable to pay back NAB $20m.

About $47m is owed to the joint venture partners, who reinvested 40 per cent of the proceeds back into the business when they sold their practices to Smiles.

Luci Palaghia and Tim Heenan of Deloitte Restructuring Services are acting as voluntary administrators.

The company has faced a huge amount of problems since listing on the ASX in April 2018 with profit downgrades, three chief executives in two years and boardroom battles.

Sydney-based Genesis Capital invests in the healthcare and technology sectors.

Its investments include Agilex Biolabs, Avance Clinical, SmartClinics and Cosmos Clinics.

Mr Abrahams founded Pacific Smiles in 2003 with Alison Hughes taking it from a small operation to a publiclylisted company with 42 dental centres when it made its debut on the ASX in 2014.

The company now has a market capitalisation of $383.78m and in its last trading update said patient fee growth was running at between 25 and 30 per cent for FY21. Shares in Smiles Inclusive were suspended in March and last traded at just 3.5 cents.