This morning Symbion Health (SYB) and Healthscope (HSP) were placed in a trading halts, pending the release of an announcement to the market.
Heathscope has made a $2.8 billion dollar offer to Australia's largest healthcare company.
Under the deal, Healthscope would buy Symbion's diagnostics assets in a scrip deal worth $1.6 billion.
Private equity firms Ironbridge Capital and Archer Capital will buy the consumer and pharmacy services businesses for $1.15 billion in cash.
Symbion and Healthscope are currently waiting on a key ruling from the Australian Taxation Office about whether shareholders can receive capital gains tax relief under Healthscope's bid.
A positive ruling is expected to pave the way for the proposed bid to proceed.
Primary Health, which holds about 20 per cent of Symbion, is opposed to the plan and
successfully quashed an earlier attempt by Healthscope to acquire Symbion.
When Healthscope revived the deal last month, Primary took legal action to stop Symbion shareholders from approving the merger at a meeting planned on Friday.
Nevertheless, these calls have fallen on deaf ears with Symbion announcing last Friday week that Primary had lost the legal challenge against it over Symbion's wheeling and dealing with Healthscope.
As a part of this jostling for position, Primary has launched a rival, hostile cash bid that values Symbion at A$2.7 billion.
The current bidding war is the latest in a long drawn out battle for pathology and diagnostic imaging assets in Australia.
This area has grown more popular of late with the aging Australians population and increasingly reliance on private healthcare.
