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AFR: StreetTalk
”Healius medical centre sale nearly ready for take-offSarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd

It’s one week until the $1.8 billion healthcare group Healius hands down its half-year results. And front of mind for investors will be what's happening with the company's ailing medical centres.Healius CEO Dr Malcolm Parmenter. Louise KennerleyHappily, Street Talk can put shareholders out of their misery by revealing vendor due diligence reports – the paperwork sellside advisers need to complete prior to an auction – on the centres are nearing completion.Finalising these reports would be one of the last steps before sale materials such as a flyer or information memorandum could be distributed to prospective acquirers.It's another sign Healius is inching closer to launching a formal auction of the division. As Street Talk revealed, Morgan Stanley has been drafted in to work alongside UBS on a potential sale.Healius is the second-largest operator of medical centres and pathology services in Australia, and the third-largest provider of imaging services. Dr Malcolm Parmenter has been trying to reverse the fortunes of the division through "Project Leapfrog", which involved a plan to spend $140 million over three years on a facelift in order to increase operational capacity.At the same time there's been no shortage of bankers and private equity firms throwing around ideas about what to do with the troubled 73-site division, and indeed the entire company.Craig Drummond's Medibank has long been talked up as logical buyer and there's at least one private equity suitor which has an all-of-company masterplan.But some buyout funds believe the stock is still over-valued, and will be not-so-secretly hoping that the market's reaction to the Healius profit numbers weighs on its share price.Healius shares closed at $2.88 on Tuesday.