Ramsay Sime Darby Picks Banks for $300 Milllion IPO

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A person looks at stock
A person looks at stock prices displayed in the trading gallery of the RHB Investment Bank Bhd. headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2020. Malaysia is restricting people's movement nationwide to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The country is banning all visitors, and residents are barred from traveling overseas while places of worship, schools and business premises will be shut except for markets that supply daily needs, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address late Monday. Photographer: Samsul Said/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care Sdn. has picked arrangers for an initial public offering in Malaysia that could raise about $300 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Credit Suisse Group AG, Malayan Banking Bhd. and Morgan Stanley have been chosen to work on the planned listing of the health care firm, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The share sale in Kuala Lumpur could take place as soon as the second half of this year, the people said.

The mandates follow Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd.’s earlier discussions with potential advisers for spinoff plans of the health care unit that it jointly owns with Australia’s largest private hospital operator Ramsay Health Care Ltd., Bloomberg News reported in October.

An offering could see the hospital operator joining glove makers Harps Holdings Sdn. and Smart Glove Corp. as well as property firm Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn. in seeking to list in Malaysia this year. Companies raised about $487 million through first-time share sales in the Southeast Asian nation in 2020, up from $458 million a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Ramsay Sime was set up in 2013 to hold Sime Darby and Ramsay Health’s combined portfolio of hospitals in Southeast Asia. It operates six hospitals in Malaysia and Indonesia as well as a day surgery facility in Hong Kong, according to Sime Darby’s annual report. The joint venture, which posted profit of 39 million ringgit ($9.6 million) in the financial year 2020, also runs a nursing college in Malaysia.

Ramsay Sime could add more banks to the lineup later, the people said. Deliberations are ongoing and hence details of the offering including size and timeline could still change, they said.

Representatives for Credit Suisse, Maybank and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. A representative for Ramsay Sime Darby also declined to comment, adding an official statement will be issued when there’s news to be disclosed.

(Updates Ramsay Sime Darby’s comment in last paragraph.)

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