Mar 7, 2019 — AFRAustralia’s largest private provider of cancer...

Mar 7, 2019 — AFR
Australia’s largest private provider of cancer care, Icon Group, has penned a fresh deal with China's Sanbo Brain Hospital Group to deliver radiation oncology services – the first of several partnerships to come in China.Icon will build and operate a radiation oncology centre in three of Sanbo's hospitals over the next two years, making a $10 million investment in the first site. It is the first Australian healthcare company to export Australian cancer expertise into China, where cancer incidence is expected to increase by 70 per cent by 2025.Icon Group chief executive Mark Middleton and head of global Private Capital at QIC, Marcus Simpson, expect Icon to keep growing.  Glenn HuntIcon chief executive Mark Middleton told The Australian Financial Review this is the initial deal under the new owners, and the first of several partnerships to come in China."I've been to China 32 times in the past three years. It is a key market for us," Mr Middleton said from Singapore, where Icon has seven cancer centres.AdvertisementQuadrant Private Equity sold Icon for more than $1 billion in 2017 to a consortium led by Queensland Investment Corporation. The QIC consortium also included Goldman Sachs Private Equity and China's Pagoda Investment, a specialist private equity investor in China's technology, media and telecommunications industries.Key introductions"The investment consortium has been helpful in making key introductions to high-quality partners in China, but we have worked really hard as a leadership group to establish our reputation in China and show our capabilities," he said."This Sanbo arrangement is the first of our new suite of partnerships where we are going to invest as well and bring our expertise in cancer care."Mr MIddleton expects another big Chinese partnership deal to be finalised in coming weeks.Icon has an office in Beijing and is building its China team. It also has vision beyond China into south-east Asia, after entering Singapore 2½ years ago."We already signed two agreements in Vietnam," Mr Middleton added. "We are enhancing cancer care capability."In the next three to five years, he expects to have 15 to 20 cancer centres operating in China."This is all in line with what we have done in Australia, and that is taking cancer care where people need it," he said.Radiation oncology services at Sanbo are set to open this year in its Chang'an hospital in Chongqing, in Sichuan province. The centre will be able to treat 900 patients a year.In January 2017, Icon signed a commissioning and operational management service agreement for cancer centres to be built with Chengde Chong Yuan Investment Group.