New Zealand healthcare products distributor EBOS Group Ltd (EBO.NZ) said on Thursday it would buy Australian peer LifeHealthcare for A$1.17 billion ($839.6 million), as it looks to expand into the Southeast Asia market. Under the deal, EBOS will buy LifeHealthcare"s Australian and New Zealand units and 51% of its Asian unit, Transmedic, from funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners and other minority holders. "The acquisition ... represents an important step in EBOS" medical devices strategy, providing greater exposure to this high-growth sector as well as a measured entry into Southeast Asia," EBOS Chief Executive John Cullity said in a statement. The deal is expected to increase EBOS" earnings per share by a low-double-digit percentage in 2022 on a pro-forma basis, the New Zealand-based firm said. LifeHealthcare, one of the largest independent distributors of third-party medical devices and in-house manufactured allograft material in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, was bought by Pacific Equity Partners in 2018. EBOS said it would undertake a retail offering to raise up to A$100 million, a share placement to raise A$642 million and a loan of A$540 million to fund the deal. The company also said its net profit after tax (NPAT) grew 14% in the four months to October and that it expected to declare an annual dividend representing 60% to 80% of its NPAT. ($1 = 1.3935 Australian dollars) Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Ramakrishnan M. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.