Healthscope has entered into a binding agreement to sell its New Zealand pathology business, Asia Pacific Healthcare Group (APHG) to the NZ Super Fund and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’) who will each take a 50 percent stake.

The sale is valued at more than NZD550 million and is subject to customary approvals including approval from New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office, with completion expected in the next six months.

APHG provides pathology services to 75 percent of New Zealand’s population with over 2,000 staff operating across its network of 25 laboratories and 150 collection centres and has been heavily involved in providing testing as part of New Zealand’s response to Covid-19.

Healthscope CEO Steven Rubic said: “APHG is an excellent, standalone business with a long track record of exceptional service and performance to the New Zealand community. The transaction is consistent with our long-term strategic refocus on Healthscope’s Australian hospital operations. We commenced a targeted sales process for the business at the beginning of the year, which drew interest from a number of interested parties attracted to APHG’s strength and resilience both of which were demonstrated by its ongoing robust performance and ability to operate without disruption during lockdown. We look forward to working with NZ Super Fund and Ontario Teachers’ to transition the business to new ownership without disruption to customers or employees.”

APHG CEO Anoop Singh said: “We are excited to move to new ownership under NZ Super Fund and Ontario Teachers’ as we take the business to its next stage of growth. The new shareholders have indicated support for APHG’s management and staff and as such there will be no impact to our valued customers, who will continue to receive the exemplary service they have come to expect from us.”

NZ Super Fund Chief Investment Officer Stephen Gilmore said: “We’re pleased to return this asset to part local ownership and continue our strong investment into New Zealand. The Super Fund has been looking at opportunities to invest into the healthcare sector where we can bring together our investment expertise and external partnerships to drive innovation and add long term value to the business. Never has the value of excellent healthcare and pathology services been more apparent than in the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and we look forward to working with APHG to continue supporting the health of the community.”

Ontario Teachers’ Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Ben Chan said: “We are excited about the opportunity to invest in APHG alongside our partner the NZ Super Fund and working together with the company as it transitions to a standalone entity. Ontario Teachers’ has an extensive track record of investing in leading healthcare businesses including in the pathology sector, and we look forward to putting this expertise to work to help support APHG’s next stage of growth while ensuring they continue delivering world-class pathology services to New Zealanders.” 

ENDS

About APHG
APHG is New Zealand’s largest human and veterinary pathology network operating as Labtests Auckland, Northland Pathology, Taranaki Pathology Services, Southern Community Laboratories, Wellington SCL, Canterbury SCL, Medlab South & Gribbles Veterinary Pathology. With 25 laboratories, over 2,000 staff and 150 collection centres throughout NZ, APHG performed over 6.7 million pathology patient episodes across New Zealand in 2019.

About Healthscope
Healthscope is Australia’s only national private healthcare provider with 43 private hospitals. Healthscope has a team of 19,000 people and 17,500 Accredited Medical Practitioners, providing care to patients ranging from pathology tests to complex surgery. Healthscope places the highest priority on quality clinical outcomes, transparency of reporting and elevating the overall patient experience. Healthscope was the first private hospital operator in Australia to report performance against quality and clinical outcome metrics publicly, just one part of our program to maintain and continually improve our high standards.

About NZ Super Fund
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund invests money on behalf of the New Zealand Government to help pay for the increased cost of universal pension entitlements in the future. By doing this the Fund adds to Crown wealth, improves the ability of future Governments to pay for universal pensions, and ultimately reduces the tax burden on future New Zealanders. A long-term, growth-oriented investor, the Fund has around NZ$46 billion in assets, including more than $6 billion invested in New Zealand. The Fund is managed by a Crown entity, the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation.

About Ontario Teachers’
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is the administrator of Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with C$207.4 billion in net assets (all figures at December 31, 2019). It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, approximately 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.7% since the plan's founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Its Asia-Pacific region office is located in Hong Kong and its Europe, Middle East & Africa region office is in London. The defined-benefit plan, which is fully funded, invests and administers the pensions of the province of Ontario's 329,000 active and retired teachers. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.