Parkway Holdings to make a comeback in 3 to 6 months

News of the $20,000 fine slapped on Thomson Medical Centre for its botched in-vitro fertilisation job has once again piqued our interest in healthcare plays. Ever since the delisting of Parkway Holdings, Thomson Medical and most recently, Qualitas Medical Group, there has been a limited number of healthcare stocks with adequate trading liquidity and market capitalisation for investors to choose from.

We therefore look forward to the buzz Parkway Holdings will create when it makes a comeback on the stock exchange within the next 3-6 months. It was reported that Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional plans to float not just Parkway’s 16 hospitals, but also its own stakes in Pantai Hospitals and Malaysia’s International Medical University.

The assets for the offering have been placed under a new company called Parkway Pantai Limited, which was registered on 21 March and is expected to be valued in excess of $5b in the public offering given that Khazanah has paid $3.5b for the acquisition of Parkway Holdings in July last year. Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, Khazanah’s managing director, does not rule out the possibility of a dual listing in Malaysia and Singapore.

It is also understood that Khazanah may retain at least 50% of PPL to ensure its control of the healthcare group. Counters that may see a boost when the IPO goes through include Raffles Medical Group and Q & M Dental Group, which are trading at 21-28x FY11 PER. Parkway Holdings itself was delisted at 31x FY10 core earnings.