The dental services provider, Abano Healthcare Group, says its selling its half share of its audiology business, Bay International, to another shareholder for $32 million.
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Under a shareholders' agreement between Abano and interests associated with Peter Hutson, the parties are exercising their pre-emptive rights to buy Abano's 50 percent stake in Bay International - at the same price as was previously offered by an unnamed third party.
The chief executive of Abano, Richard Keys, said the sale price was well in excess of Bay's half-year book value of $11.9m, and would result in a one-time gain of $20m over book value.
Excluding the profit from the sale, Abano said it was on track to meet the top end of its net profit guidance for the year ended May, around $10.2m.
Mr Keys said the company planned to use the proceeds from the sale to retire debt and to fund the continuing growth of Abano's dental networks, Lumino The Dentists in New Zealand and Maven Dental Group in Australia.
"We are very pleased with this outcome and see this sale as a positive step forward for Abano as we continue to focus on growing our trans-Tasman dental organisation.
With 188 dental practices currently across our two networks, including the recent acquisition of Lumino's 100th practice in New Zealand, we are well placed to continue our growth in the $11 billion revenue trans-Tasman dental market," he said.