The initial public offering would give an opportunity for its present investors to cash out at good premiums.
PETALING JAYA: Appetite for healthcare assets is expected to stay strong ahead of the initial public offering of Sunway Healthcare Holdings Bhd on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market slated fot the end of the first quarter of this year.
Healthcare assets have seen heightened interest in recent times, and this could mean Sunway Healthcare being able to raise funds at strong valuations.
Indicative of its valuation would be the share price of IHH Healthcare Bhd
and KPJ Healthcare Bhd, currently trading at a trailing price-earnings ratio of some 33 to 35 times and; a forward enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of some 13 to 14 times.
The initial public offering would give an opportunity for its present investors to cash out at good premiums, while new investors may be attracted by the quicker-than-usual breakeven times of such private hospital assets.
Sunway Medical Centre Damansara, which reportedly saw an Ebitda breakeven way quicker than usual in just eight months, would be an example of this quicker breakeven time.
The prospects of revenue growth for Sunway Healthcare’s assets may also be boosted by the Visit Malaysia 2026, with more medical tourists entering the country.
In its books, Sunway Group still recorded start-up operational losses of RM23.9mil in the latest reported quarter ended Sept 30, 2025, attributed to Sunway Medical Centre (SMC) Damansara and SMC Ipoh.
But excluding these losses, Sunway Group said its healthcare segment delivered improved underlying performance with 19.4% year-on-year growth, with stronger operational results from SMC Sunway City, SMC Velocity and SMC Penang.
This is being driven by the higher number of patients and additional bed capacity compared with the previous financial year, the group said.
Sunway Bhd owns 84% of Sunway Healthcare, with the remaining equity interest held by Greenwood Capital Pte Ltd, a unit of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Government of Singapore Investment Corp.
The listing of Sunway Healthcare would see Sunway’s effective equity interest in the former be diluted to 69.5% from 84%.
MBSB Research views the listing positively in a report from September, valuing the company on a sum-of-parts basis at RM16bil, with Sunway’s stake estimated to be at RM13.6bil.
“We value Sunway Healthcare at 23 times enterprise value to Ebitda which is slightly higher than 20.1 times enterprise value to Ebitda for the disposal of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care Sdn Bhd by Sime Darby Bhd to Columbia Asia Healthcare Sdn Bhd in 2023,” the research house said.
