NZ's largest pathology business Labtests sold in $600m deal as owner changes hands

Labtests' owners are changing. Photo / File

Consent has been granted for New Zealand's largest pathology business to be sold as part of a global deal which will see the ownership of this country's Labtests business change hands.

The Overseas Investment Office has approved foreign-owned Brookfield Capital Partners and ANZ Hospitals to buy the New Zealand assets of ASX-listed Healthscope as part of a A$4.4 billion takeover.

Healthscope owns Labtests NZ which has district health board contracts and South Island assets. The OIO lists the value of the New Zealand assets at $600 million.

Healthscope is Australia's second largest private hospital operator, a leading provider of pathology services in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Labtests has been providing pathology services to the Auckland community since 2009.

"As part of the Auckland Regional District Health Board contract, we provide a range of pathology services for all GP's, public hospital clinics and Midwives for diagnostic testing for eligible patients. Labtests will also provide commercial services for non funded requests," the business says.

The buyer was listed as 60 per cent Canadian owned, 16 per cent United States, then owned by interests in Japan, Kuwait, Israel, Qatar, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, France, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Finland and Switzerland.

The OIO said: "The applicant is the general partner of several limited partnerships which are collectively described as an investment vehicle of pooled funds managed by affiliates of Brookfield Asset Management, Inc., a global alternative asset manager incorporated in Canada, with investments focusing in renewable energy, property, infrastructure and private equity.

Australia's Healthscope is the second largest private hospital operator in Australia, and a leading pathology service provider in New Zealand, the OIO said.

Mark Forman and Igor Drinkovic from MinterEllisonRuddWatts advised Brookfield on the New Zealand aspects of the transaction.