TPG Capital and its sponsored companies have been on a tear in 2019. Through its recently launched U.S. autism platform, Kadiant, the global private equity firm announced six deals since February. Its U.S.-based digital health company WellSky announced two deals in the past 12 months and back in February, Kindred Healthcare, now co-owned by TPG and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, acquired a hospital in Los Angeles out of the Promise Healthcare bankruptcy.
In early September, TPG announced its acquisition of another digital health company, Convey Health Solutions, from New Mountain Capital for an undisclosed price.
Two weeks later, the firm was back in the news with a $1.2 billion deal for 17 hospitals in Southeast Asia, in partnership with the Hong Leong Group, a Malaysian conglomerate with interests in banking, financial services, manufacturing and distribution, property development, hospitality and leisure.
Columbia Asia Group, a portfolio company of Columbia Pacific Management, agreed to sell 17 hospitals and one clinic with locations in Malaysia (12 hospitals), Indonesia (3) and Vietnam (2 and 1 clinic).
Columbia Asia is owned by investment fund International Columbia USA LLC, which is managed by Columbia Pacific Management. It runs a chain of hospitals in Asia with 29 medical facilities across India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Its 11 hospitals in India are not part of this transaction. Columbia Pacific Management was considering selling all of Columbia Asia for approximately $2 billion in November 2018 but didn’t find the right buyer.
This deal marks TPG’s re-entry into the hospital market in Southeast Asia. In July it sold United Familly Healthcare, a private operator in China, to New Frontier Corp. for $1.3 billion. In May 2019, TPG’s portfolio company Asia Healthcare Holdings sold its chain of cancer treatment centers across India, doing business as Cancer Treatment Services International, to Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) for $283 million. Earlier that same month, Asia Healthcare picked up Novi IVI Fertility, a chain of in vitro fertility clinics in with 20 centers in 15 Indian cities. The price was not disclosed on that deal.
