Sonic waves on Edelsten clinics

The 21-clinic Allied Medical Group chain has been on the market since last year with an asking price of more than $200 million, but getting a sale away had been hampered by the group's corporate structure.

Mr Edelsten is banned from practising medicine but acts as a consultant to Allied, run by his long-time business partner Trevor Thompson, and owns four of the clinics outright.

Sonic is said to have signed a deal with Mr Edelsten and Mr Thompson yesterday after several rounds of due diligence.

"There are lots and lots of rumours and things and I wouldn't give any credence to [them]," Mr Edelsten told BusinessDay. "There's nothing I can say to you."

A spokeswoman for Sonic Healthcare said chief executive Dr Colin Goldschmidt "doesn't comment on rumours" and Mr Thompson could not be reached last night.

After being bankrupted in 1987, Mr Edelsten spent a year in jail after he was convicted in 1990 of perverting the course of justice and hiring hitman Christopher Dale Flannery to beat up a man.