By Rajasik Mukherjee and Yantoultra Ngui
May 25 (Reuters) - Jardine Matheson said on Monday it has agreed to buy Australian medical imaging provider I-MED Radiology Network for a total enterprise value of A$3.4 billion ($2.4 billion), adding a major healthcare diagnostics business to the Hong Kong-based group.
The storied investment group, whose businesses span property, retail, and automotive sectors, said it will buy a 100% stake in I-MED from funds advised by private equity firm Permira and other
shareholders.
It said the deal would be funded through cash reserves and debt financing, without giving a split.
Jardines said in a statement that the purchase includes I-MED's minority interest in Harrison.ai, which develops radiology AI solutions, and fits with its strategy of investing for control in market-leading businesses and expanding into growth areas.
The deal values I-MED at about 11.5 times forecast adjusted EBITDA for the year ending June 2026, excluding the Harrison.ai stake, Jardines said in its statement. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
The firm said the deal is expected to be neutral to underlying earnings per share in its first full year after closing and accretive thereafter.
"I-MED is already a market leader in radiology today, and we expect the business will expand further in I-MED's core markets as well as new markets," Jardines' CEO Lincoln Pan, who started in his role in December, said in the statement.
I-MED operates 215 diagnostic imaging clinics in Australia and New Zealand and performs more than 7 million procedures each year, Jardines said. It also provides teleradiology, or the remote reading of medical scans, in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.
The transaction requires regulatory approvals and is expected to close later in 2026, Jardines said.
In January, Jardines completed its buyout of Mandarin Oriental.
($1 = 1.3970 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and John Mair)
