By Sameer Manekar and Rajasik Mukherjee
Feb 20 (Reuters) – Australia’s Ramsay Health Care said on Friday it plans to distribute its 52.79% stake in Ramsay Sante to its shareholders, effectively separating from its long-underperforming French-listed business.
Shares of Ramsay rose as much as 4.5% to A$39.19, hitting their highest level since August 18.
The decision comes a year after the Sydney-based hospital operator hired Goldman Sachs to review strategic options for its stake in Ramsay Sante amid pressure to focus on its core operations.
Ramsay will distribute its stake in Ramsay Sante by allocating its shareholders their proportionate share of the French business through depository interests that will trade on the Australian Securities Exchange.
The company said the distribution is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to approvals.
Hayden Beamish, chief investment officer at Endeavor Asset Management, called Sante a “persistent drag” and said the decision to offload Sante was long overdue.
“The proposed in-specie distribution to shareholders is a clean structure…retaining the option to sell outright rather than demerge is sensible given the debt load.”
Sante, a private healthcare operator in Europe with its services spread across France, Italy, Norway, among others, has been underperforming for some time.
Its shares have declined 44% in value since the end of 2023. It reported a loss of 54.1 million euros ($63.68 million) in the year to June 2025, bigger than the prior year’s loss of 53.9 million euros.
Predica, a unit of French international banking group Credit Agricole, holds the rest 39.8% of ownership of Sante.
($1 = 0.8495 euros)
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar & Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Maju Samuel)
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