Ramsay refinances $1.5b of debt with a sustainability slant

Ramsay had been assigned an investment grade credit rating of
triple B on its WOFG debt, with a stable outlook, by Fitch Ratings, Inc before the deal.

In late May Fitch placed Ramsay on rating watch negative (RWN).

The WOFG excludes its French operations Ramsay Santé and holding in its Asian business, Ramsay Sime Darby.

Ramsay’s UK financial advisor Rothschild & Co believes it has enough resources to pay in full the cash offer of £2.40 a share to acquire Spire through a scheme of arrangement.

In May the nation’s largest private hospitals operator agreed to buy listed British company Spire, in a deal that values the target at £2.064 billion ($3.7 billion) including assumed debts.

The acquisition will transform the Australian healthcare giant’s UK business into a leading private healthcare provider, diversifying Ramsay UK’s payer sources and case mix at the same time.

According to the scheme document released this week,  the Spire board led by Sir Ian Cheshire, which has been advised by Goldman Sachs International and JP Morgan Cazenove, unanimously considers the scheme to be fair and reasonable. It told shareholders to vote in favour of the deal.

The new facility has embedded targets that are aligned with the three pillars of the ‘Ramsay Cares’ sustainability strategy, Caring for People, Caring for Planet and Caring for Community.

The targets have been designed to drive a more intense focus through the business on sustainability, including on the mental health and wellbeing of staff, setting the foundations to reduce our energy intensity and emissions and an emphasis on responsible sourcing within our medical supply chains.

Ramsay chief financial officer Martyn Roberts said the group has completed the first step in the process of extending and staggering the tenor and diversifying the sources of its debt.

The sustainability link demonstrates Ramsay’s commitment to the ‘Ramsay Cares’ strategy with meaningful targets that will require it to increase investment across the organisation, he added.

“The new facility was significantly oversubscribed and received support from existing and new lenders reflecting the growing level of interest in supporting sustainability linked loans,” Mr Roberts said.