Medibank Private is believed to mulling an investment in Australia’s biggest specialist mental health providers, Aurora Healthcare, and adding it to the company’s growing health services business unit.
While the health insurer’s board and management team deal with a serious cyber breach, multiple industry sources have told Street Talk that Medibank’s thinking about a minority stake in Aurora and a potential investment alongside the target’s owner, China’s Luye Medical Group.
Sources said the deliberations had gone as far as Medibank’s boardroom, in a sign that its interest is more than spitballing options, and comes as the insurer has made a concerted effort to invest in related service providers in recent years.
Aurora was created a couple of years ago, when Luye restructured Healthe Care and its speciality services business in Australia, and the Novena Heart Centre and OncoCare Cancer Centre in Singapore.
Aurora was designed to be the Australian mental health, rehabilitation, specialty medical and community services provider, with a portfolio of 16 private hospitals and community services. Its services include the 104-bed private mental health Currumbin Clinic on Queensland’s Gold Coast, and has 1000 mental health beds in total to make it Australia’s largest specialty private mental health provider.
