Mediclinic buys UAE hospitals
MEDICLINIC International has agreed to buy United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Al Noor Hospitals for about £1.5 billion (R30.7bn) to create the biggest private health -care provider in the UAE, even as rival NMC Health vowed to keep pursuing Al Noor.
Al Noor proposed to buy Johannesburg-based Mediclinic in a reverse takeover, the companies said in a statement yesterday.
Al Noor holders can opt to get a special dividend of £3.28 a share or tender their stock for £11.60 apiece, which represents a 39 percent premium over the October 1 closing price.
The latter valued the deal at £1.5bn, said Mediclinic chief executive Danie Meintjes.
The combination, hammered out as Al Noor spurned expressions of interest from NMC, aims to create a hospital company with operations spanning the Gulf states, South Africa and Switzerland.
Mediclinic is seeking to expand in countries where rising household incomes have led to growing demand for private health care.
Mediclinic, which has more than 50 hospitals in South Africa and Namibia, also has a presence in the UAE.
Combining the two companies would create an operator with about 20 percent of the private beds in the region, analysts said.
It will also be the biggest player in Switzerland, the third largest in South Africa, and will have a 29.9 percent stake in Britain’s Spire Healthcare Group.
The deal will create a London-listed group with a turnover exceeding $4 billion (R53.6bn) operating 73 hospitals with about 10 200 beds, 35 clinics and employing nearly 32 000 people.
The tie-up with Mediclinic is backed by the two major shareholders in Al Noor, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Butti Al Hamed and Kassem Alom, who together hold 34.3 percent.
Shares of Al Noor soared by a record in London trading, giving it a market value of £1.37bn. Mediclinic eased 2.91 percent to R113.81 yesterday.
NMC, a health-care company based in Abu Dhabi like Al Noor, said separately that a combination of its own operations with Al Noor offered a stronger “strategic and financial rationale for all stakeholders”.