Healthcare services company McKesson Corp. (MCK), Thursday entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Asia Pacific business to Australia-based health insurer Medibank Private Ltd. The acquisition is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2010, subject to customary conditions, including regulatory review in Australia.
At the close of the share purchase transaction, Medibank, an existing McKesson Asia Pacific customer, will own 100% of the shares in McKesson Asia Pacific.
Under the arrangement, McKesson Asia Pacific will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Health Services Australia Pty Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Medibank. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.
McKesson's Asia Pacific division is a provider of phone- and web-based healthcare services, including telephone triage, health and wellness advice, chronic disease management and mental health services in Australia and New Zealand, serving both the national and state governments of those countries over the past five years. The business was originally founded in 1995 and acquired by McKesson in 2000.
The divestiture is the result of an unsolicited offer from Medibank and McKesson will continue to have a presence in the Asia Pacific region through distribution of the company's other product offerings and its sourcing operations.
MCK closed Thursday's regular trading at $66.60, up 0.43 or 0.65%, on a volume of 2.56 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock declined $0.14 or 0.22%, trading at $66.4559.
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