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Private infrastructure investors are poised to acquire NHS landlord Assura in a £1.6bn deal, marking the latest potential exit of a London-listed group from the UK market.
Buyout giant KKR and infrastructure backer Stonepeak Partners have made a nonbinding offer to acquire the company for 49.4p per share, a 32 per cent premium to its closing price before KKR’s takeover interest was first publicised last month.
Assura said on Monday its board would be “minded to recommend” the deal, should KKR and Stonepeak make a firm offer on those terms. The company has rejected four approaches from KKR in recent weeks, according to a KKR statement last month, including its most recent offer of 48p per share.
Assura’s shares rose by 14 per cent in early trading in London, to 46.5p.
KKR had earlier teamed up with the Universities Superannuation Scheme for a deal, but USS then said it would not make an offer for Assura. Assura and USS last year had entered into a joint venture to invest in NHS infrastructure.
On Monday, Assura said it had also rejected an offer of an all-share merger with Primary Health Properties that would equate to around 43p per share, having concluded that KKR and Stonepeak’s cash offer was “more attractive”.
FTSE 250 company Assura owns hundreds of doctors’ surgeries and healthcare centres in the UK, with an investment properly value of £3.2bn in September. A takeover would make it the latest UK-listed group to be taken private by investors seeking bargains on the London markets.
Public landlords have been particularly attractive as targets for dealmakers, with other deals in the sector over the past year including Brookfield and Segro’s deal to divide up Tritax EuroBox’s warehouse portfolio.
