News: RHC UPDATE 1-Australia's Ramsay Health gets 'inferior' alternate offer from KKR-led group

(Updates with detail, background, quote)

Aug 25 (Reuters) - Australia's Ramsay Health Care Ltd (RHC) said on Thursday it received an alternate proposal from a group led by KKR & Co KKR.N that allows its shareholders to retain a majority stake in Ramsay Generale De Sante GDSF.PA , but has deemed it inferior to an earlier offer.

Ramsay currently owns more than 52% shares in Ramsay Generale De Sante.

The offer is an alternate option to the nearly $15 billion unsolicited takeover offer made by the group in April.

The alternate proposal would allow the consortium to retain a 15% stake in the Paris-based hospital operator, while Ramsay shareholders would retain the balance stake in the unit.

Under this proposal, Ramsay shareholders would be entitled to receive the full A$88 per share offer for the first 5,000 shares. After that, the consideration would be split into A$78 per share and 0.22 Ramsay Santé shares.

In either case, the cash amount would be reduced by the value of any dividends or distributions paid or declared by Ramsay after January this year. The implied value under the alternate offer is A$84.93 per share for holdings in excess of 5,000 shares excluding any dividends, the company said.

"The Ramsay board has considered the alternative proposal and is unanimously of the view that it is meaningfully inferior to the consortium’s indicative proposal of A$88.00 cash per share," the Sydney-based health care firm added. (([email protected]; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))