Investor Toscafund has proposed a 250p per share offer for private hospital and clinic operator Spire Healthcare (SPI). The offer values the firm at £1 billion and represents a 66% premium to last night’s closing price of 150p per share.
Unanimous support
Toscafund, Spire’s second-largest shareholder, made several earlier proposals to the company during its strategic review according to today’s statement. Its latest proposal includes an option for investors to roll some or all of their holdings into an unlisted equity alternative.
Spire’s board says it is still highly confident in the firm’s standalone strategy and the ‘value creation opportunity’. However, it also says the latest offer is at a value which it would be ‘prepared to recommend unanimoously to shareholders’.
Toscafund, headquartered in London, specialises in investing in UK equities and providing growth capital for private companies. The group, which manages around $2 billion of assets, has until 11 June to announce a firm offer or walk away.
Spire’s network of 38 private hospitals and 60-odd clinics is clearly an attractive asset. Last year the firm provided care to over 1.3 million patients, and it is the UK’s leading independent provider of knee and hip replacements.
As its second-largest shareholder, Toscafund probably has a better idea of the intrinsic value of the business than outsiders. That might explain why the earlier 230p per share offer from Bridgepoint and Triton failed to get off the ground.
Having fended off KKR to acquire Assura last year, Primary Health Properties (PHP) is now pretty much the last firm standing in the space. Like Spire, its shares have also been in the doldrums for several years, which could make it the next target.
Read the press release here:
https://www.investors.spirehealthcare.com/home
