Feb 14 (Reuters) - Australia's HealthCo Healthcare and

Wellness REIT said on Friday that a consortium led by

David Di Pilla's HMC Capital ( HMCLF ) had approached it for a

possible buyout of Healthscope hospitals.

Healthscope, which is the country's second-largest private

hospital operator with about 38 hospitals, accounts for nearly

59% of HealthCo's gross earnings and has a market value of A$1.5

billion, the real estate investment trust said in a statement,

without giving any further details.

HealthCo is majority owned by Di Pilla with a more than 22%

stake, as per LSEG data.

HealthCo forked out A$1.20 billion ($757.68 million) in 2023

to acquire Medical Properties' Healthscope hospital portfolio, a

chain of 11 private hospitals in a deal that was backed by asset

manager HMC Capital ( HMCLF ).

Earlier, New York-headquartered private equity firm

Brookfield acquired Healthscope in 2019 only for them to sell

some of Healthscope's hospitals to Medical Properties.

HealthCo said on Friday it had been approached by "capable

and qualified parties to potentially tenant the 11 hospitals

including a consortium led by HMC Capital's ( HMCLF ) private equity

division."

Shares of HealthCo, which have fallen about 12% since their

debut in 2021, gave up early gains to close flat.

HMC Capital's ( HMCLF ) managing director for real estate, Sid Sharma,

said, "The pressures around private health insurance and wage

costs are well documented... VMO (visiting medical officer)

retention is high. What needs to be rectified... is the capital

structure."

Asset manager HMC launched Australia's largest initial

public offering of last year through DigiCo REIT, a new digital

infrastructure real estate trust focused on data centers.

HealthCo logged a 5% growth in funds from operations (FFO)

to 4.2 Australian cents per share in the first half of the year

and reaffirmed its full-year FFO forecast of 8.4 cents apiece.

($1 = 1.5838 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by

Subhranshu Sahu)