Materia Medica Malaysiana

Sime Darby aborts sale of SJMC
From The Edge

Sime Darby Bhd has aborted the proposed disposal of the Subang Jaya Medical Centre Sdn Bhd (SJMC) after it could not agree to the prices and terms offered by several bidders.

In a short statement to the KLSE on June 24, Sime Darby said its unit SD Holdings Bhd had decided not to proceed with the proposed disposal after considering "the pricing and terms of the bids received from the bidders".

"The board, after careful deliberations, has decided not to proceed with the proposed disposal," it said. SJMC owns and operates the 375-bed Subang Jaya medical centre.

Sime Darby did not state its next course of action.

On May 29, Sime Darby chief executive Tan Sri Nik Mohamed Nik Yaacob had said the final decision on proposed sale hinged on whether the bids from several bidders measured up to the group's expectations.

The Edge Weekly had reported that it was asking for more than RM200 million cash in the proposed sale, but the bids came in at between RM150 million and RM180 million.

Pantai Holdings Bhd, which already owns six hospitals, and Singapore's Raffles Medical Group were believed to be among the bidders.

Sime Darby had on March 28 announced that it was selling its entire 64.26 million shares in SJMC by way of a bidding process.

The proposal was aimed at freeing capital not directly related to its core businesses in plantations, motor vehicles and heavy equipment distribution, property, engineering and power generation.

SJMC is the group's only investment in the healthcare industry. SJMC's net profit of RM6.7 million in the financial year ended June 30, 2002, represented less than one per cent of the Sime Darby group's profit of RM771.22 million.