(Bloomberg) — Australian pension funds QIC Ltd. and Sunsuper Superannuation Fund have struck a deal to acquire New Zealand’s second-largest hospital operator, Evolution Healthcare, the firms said on Friday.
The pair will pay close to A$700 million ($500 million) for the business under which 300 surgeons performed more than 57,000 elective operations in the last financial year, according to a person familiar with the matter. The retirement funds together are looking to put money toward what they describe as a mega-trend for healthcare demand stemming from an aging population across the region.
“We’re very pleased to have been successful in securing Evolution Healthcare, a long-standing and dominant healthcare operator with strong incumbent positions in its key catchments,” Ross Israel, QIC’s Head of Global Infrastructure was quoted as saying in an announcement from the funds. “It is a platform with an experienced management team which has strong potential for future growth and expansion over time.”
The Evolution business runs a network of 10 comprehensive and day hospitals in addition to a portfolio of ancillary healthcare facilities in New Zealand and one private hospital in Australia, the retirement funds, both based in Brisbane, said in the statement.
QIC, which manages the long-term investment responsibilities of the Queensland state government, will make the investment through its Global Infrastructure Fund. The deal adds to a busy year for the fund which has spent about A$4 billion on sustainable infrastructure in 2021 and recently closed an additional A$1 billion raising in October to do more. The money manager has some experience in the Australian healthcare sector through its investment in Nexus Hospitals in 2019.
For Sunsuper the deal marks the first investment into the industry, the firms’ Head of Private Markets, Michael Weaver, was quoted as saying. Evolution represents “a strong platform to leverage the sector thematics around aging demographics and technology and medical innovation,” he said.
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