Connor Healthcare makes a second clearance application to buy 100% of Acurity Healthcare
Issued 17 December 2014
Release No. 63
The Commerce Commission has received a second application from Connor Healthcare Limited seeking clearance to acquire
all of the shares that it does not currently own in Acurity Health Group Limited.
If the proposed acquisition goes ahead, Acurity will be 100% owned by Connor Healthcare, and for a short period of time
Connor Healthcare will be owned 75% by Austron (the current owner of 50% of Acurity) and 25% by Evolution Healthcare.
During this period, Evolution Healthcare (who owns 100% of Connor Healthcare) has undertaken to sell down its
shareholding in Connor Healthcare so that it returns to the equivalent of the 11.7% shareholding in Acurity that it
currently owns. Connor Healthcare would then be owned 88.3% by Austron and 11.7% by Evolution.
On 11 December 2014, the Commission declined an application from Connor Healthcare to acquire all of the shares that it
does not currently own in Acurity.
The Commission declined the application as the proposed acquisition would have seen three of the four private hospitals
in the Wellington region – Boulcott, Bowen and Wakefield – come under common ownership, leaving only Southern Cross
Hospital independent of Connor Healthcare. In that case, the Commission considered that the acquisition would be likely
to result in a substantial lessening of competition because Southern Cross Hospital would be unlikely to be able to
expand to provide sufficient competition to replace that provided by Boulcott Hospital.
A public version of the application will be available tomorrow on our Clearances Register.
Background
Connor Healthcare is currently 100% owned by Evolution Healthcare which also owns Boulcott Hospital in Lower Hutt.
Acurity is a publicly listed company on the New Zealand stock exchange which owns and operates the Wakefield and Bowen
private hospitals in Wellington and the Royston private hospital in Hastings.