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The business of general practice, daily

Tuesday 14 July 2026

One item today, and it is a milestone reaching its date rather than a fresh deal. In New Zealand, Green Cross Health held its shareholders' meeting in Auckland today, Tuesday 14 July, and put the NZD 270m sale of The Doctors to Tend Health to the vote. The board recommended in favour, the poll result had not been published on the NZX at the time of writing, and completion is targeted for 31 July if approved. Closer to home the register is quiet: no new GP practice acquisition has reached the ACCC register since Partnered Health's 3 July notification, and no determination has been published on that first mandatory-regime matter, its bid for the 11-GP Medicine on Second clinic at Maroochydore (MN-15027). Submissions closed on 10 July, and a Phase 1 determination is expected in the second half of July.

Migrations · deals and corporate activity
Green Cross shareholders vote on the sale of The Doctors; no new Australian GP deal, first mandatory-regime determination still awaited Confirmed

Green Cross Health held its annual shareholders' meeting in Auckland today, Tuesday 14 July, brought forward and combined with the resolution to approve the sale of its medical division, which trades as The Doctors, to Tend Health for NZD 270m. The Doctors runs 65 clinics with more than 400,000 enrolled patients, New Zealand's largest GP network. Tend, a technology-enabled primary care provider with a nationwide digital platform alongside its clinic network, backed by iwi and local investors, would keep the network under New Zealand ownership. The board recommended shareholders vote in favour.

The poll result had not been published on the NZX at the time of writing, so the outcome is not yet confirmed. If approved, completion is targeted for 31 July, after which Green Cross refocuses on its pharmacy business. This is a New Zealand transaction, tracked here as an international comparator for the digital-buyer read, not an Australian deal.

Closer to home, no new GP practice acquisition has reached the ACCC register since Partnered Health's 3 July notification. Checked directly on the register today, the first GP practice matter under the mandatory merger regime, Partnered Health's bid for the 11-GP Medicine on Second clinic at Maroochydore (MN-15027), remains at Phase 1 initial assessment, effective notification date 3 July, with no determination yet published. Submissions closed on Friday 10 July, so a Phase 1 determination in the second half of July remains the working expectation, inside the statutory determination period ending 14 August. This is the first GP practice matter under the regime, so the timetable it sets is the one every corporate and health-insurer bolt-on above the cumulative threshold will follow.

The larger Bupa-Partnered Health parent transaction, reported by AFR Street Talk on 18 June at $450m, has still not appeared on the register. Only the Ryan Plaza subsidiary notification is listed.

14 July 2026 National / International (New Zealand)
Fresh tracks · what we're watching
  1. Partnered Health / Ryan Plaza (MN-15027) still awaits its Phase 1 determination. Checked directly on the register today: still at Phase 1 initial assessment, effective 3 July, no determination published, submissions closed on Friday 10 July, with the determination period ending 14 August. On the ACCC's recent Phase 1 timing a determination is likely in the second half of July. The first GP clearance under the mandatory regime sets the template, and the timetable, for every corporate and health-insurer bolt-on that follows.
  2. Whether the Bupa-Partnered Health parent transaction, reported by AFR Street Talk on 18 June at $450m, surfaces on the ACCC public register. Still absent as at 14 July.
  3. The Green Cross vote result, to be confirmed directly against the NZX announcement, then completion targeted for 31 July if the sale is approved.
  4. ATO valuation guidance for the 1 July 2027 CGT cost base reset, still not issued. The apportionment formula is described in the Budget material but the ATO tool and detailed methodology are not out, and it remains the gate on any firm pre-2027 planning for practice owners.
  5. AvidSys-Spectrum (WA): the acquisition of Spectrum Health Group's WA practices was announced in November 2025, before the mandatory notification regime commenced on 1 January 2026. The AvidSys site still describes the deal in forward-tense terms ('will transition', 'to be completed through Avid Health'), Shire of Dandaragan council minutes from 23 April 2026 refer to it as still proposed, and the DXC Medical WA monthly update for July notes no Spectrum Health deal was publicly reported in June. The watch is whether completion has slipped past 1 January 2026: if it has, and the deal clears the thresholds, an ACCC notification may still be required.
  6. Gungahlin's fully bulk-billed clinic (Macquarie General Practice), the third of the Federal Government-funded bulk-billing clinics in the ACT, was due to open during July. No confirmed date yet.
  7. Payday Super commenced on 1 July 2026: employers must now pay the super guarantee at the same time as wages, with contributions reaching the employee's fund within seven business days, replacing quarterly payment. For owner-operated practices this is a working-capital and wage-compliance change rather than a transaction. The watch is the ATO's compliance approach and any transitional relief through the first payday cycles.
  8. National Dental Care: Crescent Capital has appointed Morgan Stanley to sell the network, one of Australia's largest, after more than a decade of ownership (AFR Street Talk, 18 June). Dental, not general practice, so it does not change GP buyer logic. It is worth watching only as a marker of continued private equity appetite in Australian health services, and for any health-services multiple the process discloses.

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