Caring Pharmacy, which sells pharmaceutical, health and personal care products, is majority-owned by 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings. Sources indicated the deal could reach over US$300 million (RM1.4 billion) in size.
Caring Pharmacy is 75% owned by 7-Eleven, while the rest is held by Motivasi Optima, according to a recent note to shareholders from the retail chain.
Caring Pharmacy did not respond to queries from DealStreetAsia. Carlyle said it did not want to comment on “market speculation”.
Bloomberg reported in July that 7-Eleven was looking to offload its entire stake in Caring Pharmacy. It said the company could seek a valuation for the retailer of about US$400 million (RM1.8 billion), citing sources.
Established in 1994 by five pharmacists, Caring Pharmacy operated 120 stores in Sabah and Sarawak and one store in Peninsular Malaysia as of 2019, according to its website. It had traded on Bursa Malaysia for over six years before it was delisted in 2020 following the completion of its takeover by 7-Eleven.
7-Eleven Malaysia recently entered Indonesia through a joint venture with PI Era Prima Indonesia. The venture will run a network of pharma chains and health services in the country.
US-based Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services company with around US$376 billion (RM1.8 trillion) of assets under management.
Carlyle is increasingly focusing on healthcare. Last week, DealStreetAsia reported that Carlyle, Warburg Pincus and Bain Capital were looking to acquire the TPG-backed EverCare platform in India.
In August, the company announced it would acquire a significant minority stake in CureApp, a prescription digital therapeutics provider in Japan.
Also in August, Carlyle announced it was making a minority investment of up to US$350 million (RM1.6 billion) into 1Life Healthcare, the technology and management company behind One Medical, a provider of primary care in the US.
In the past two years, private equity interest in Southeast Asian healthcare and pharma players has risen due to projected increases in healthcare spending, stores of uninvested capital already dedicated to private equity funds and the market disruption caused by Covid-19.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC this week joined a consortium to acquire the EU-based pharmaceutical product manufacturer Unither Pharmaceuticals from French PE company Ardian. It also announced it was investing in Cheplapharm, an international platform for branded medicines.