By PAUL PANCKHURST
A Sydney private equity firm is expected to buy Guardian Healthcare Group - a rest home operator that had been touted as a likely sharemarket listing.
The Business Herald was told by one source yesterday that Pacific Equity Partners was the preferred bidder and by another that PEP was
on the verge of signing a deal to buy the Wellington company.
Guardian Healthcare describes itself as the country's largest private owner and operator of rest homes and hospitals.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs JBWere is running the sales process.
A Goldman Sachs private equity fund last year put $5 million into the expansion of Guardian, previously known as Harbourside Group Holdings.
PEP is known for a range of investments in New Zealand, including the $136 million purchase in April of Australian and New Zealand book chains including Whitcoulls and Bennetts. It has also floated companies such as Frucor and Vertex on the stock exchange.
Typically, private equity funds hold investee companies for three to five years, often exiting via sharemarket floats.
On its website, Guardian yesterday said it had 25 rest home and hospital facilities and 1680 beds. It was also "a major player" in medical alarms, sold life-care products and offered companionship and day-care programmes for the elderly.
The company's past acquisitions have included the Havencare group of four hospitals in the wider Auckland region.
News reports describe founder and managing director David Renwick as the biggest shareholder in the company.
The company reportedly has annual revenue of $58.3 million and last reported a bottomline profit of $5.6 million.
