DCC to sell healthcare unit for €1.22bn
DCC, the Dublin-based energy to technology distribution and services group, has agreed to sell its healthcare unit for £1.05 billion (€1.22 billion) as it focuses on simplifying its business around energy.
The buyer is HealthCo Investment, which is owned by funds run or advised by London-based private equity firm Investindustrial Advisors, DCC said in a statement on Tuesday.
The planned deal is on a cash-free, debt-free basis and is subject to various regulatory approvals. It is expected to complete in the third quarter of this calendar year, it said. Some £130 million of the consideration is deferred and will be received within two years.
DCC, founded in 1976 by businessman Jim Flavin as a provider of venture capital for start-ups before floating almost two decades later, revealed in November it was abandoning its conglomerate roots with a plan to sell its healthcare division and review 'strategic options' for its technology business.
READ MORE
Chief executive Donal Murphy said at the time the group believes that its energy business – now by far its largest division – and related opportunity in energy transition presents the largest growth opportunity available to the group.
'The disposal of DCC Healthcare is a material step in simplifying DCC's operations and focusing on our high growth, high return, energy business. Our strategy will continue to build DCC as a market-leading multi-energy business,' said Mr Murphy on Tuesday.
'The profitable sale creates immediate value for our shareholders, and we are confident that Investindustrial will take DCC Healthcare forward in the best long‐term interests of its employees, customers and suppliers.'
The distribution and services conglomerate, which sells everything from catheters to hospitals to audiovisual equipment to events companies, hired JP Morgan at the time to preparation the healthcare division for sale.
DCC reiterated that it expects to return surplus cash generated from the healthcare business sale to shareholders, while maintaining a strong, investment-grade balance sheet.
In the year ended 31 March 2024, DCC Healthcare recorded revenue of £859.4 million and adjusted operating profit of £88.1 million. The unit represented approximately 13 per cent of group operating profit. 2024.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Mayo records notable house price increases amid ‘very low supply'
According to the latest House Price Report, the average house price in Mayo in Q2 of 2025 stood at €234,406. This is 52.3pc higher than pre-Covid prices and 4.1pc higher than the previous quarter. Every house type in Mayo recorded an increase in prices. Most notable was the price of a one-bedroom apartment, which jumped from 23.4pc to €102,000. This comes amid a nationwide annual increase in house prices. County Laois recorded the biggest annual increase, rising 16.6pc to €284,031 while Monaghan rose 2.2 pc to €245,222. Dr Ronan Lyons, author of the House Price Report, said the housing market was 'starved of supply' at present. 'The underlying reason is largely unchanged. There are simply too few homes on the market at the moment,' he said. Today (Monday, June 23) there are 868 properties in Mayo listed for sale on Elsewhere, the Real Estate Alliance (REA) has found that the average price of a second-hand three-bed semi-detached house in Mayo has increased to €265,000. This represents a 8.2pc increase in just three months – the highest increase of any area recorded during that period. According to the Q2 REA Average House Price Index, the average time taken to sell a property has increased by one week to a total of five. 'We are experiencing very low supply, with a total of just seven properties sold in Castlebar in this quarter,' said Robert McGreal of REA McGreal Burke. 'There are eleven properties on market currently with an average of €265,000 as well.' ADVERTISEMENT The survey shows that across the county, 50pc of purchasers were first-time buyers. A 20pc of sales in Mayo this quarter were attributed to landlords leaving the market. Additionally, agents across the county reported that the BER ratings of properties saw A-rated properties command 28pc price increases in comparison to comparable C-rated properties. Castlebar-based auctioneer Kevin Beirne told the Irish Independent that new building regulations were contributing to house price inflation. 'There is such a different now between a modern new home with all the building regulations and the energy efficiency of them, that's why there is such a difference in the price. Building materials and triple-glazed windows and all that are longer lasting,' he said.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Ulster Bank to hand back Irish banking licence at the end of the week
Ulster Bank Ireland confirmed on Monday that it will return its banking licence to the Central Bank at the end of the week, after 165 years in the Republic. The company, which is a unit of the NatWest Group in the UK, will be renamed Ulydien DAC and will operate as a retail credit firm as it continues a 'phased and orderly' withdrawal of its operations. Philip Duff, who has held a number of senior roles in the bank for over two decades, will become managing director of Ulydien from the weekend. Remaining customers will receive a letter advising them of the changes and do not need to take any action at this time, Ulster Bank said. READ MORE 'Our staff will be available to assist with any queries from our few remaining customers and beneficiaries,' it said. 'Ulydien will be regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and customers will retain their legal and regulatory protections.' The Irish Times previously reported that Jane Howard, who has led Ulster Bank since 2018, is set to become chief executive of NatWest's RBS International division at the start of July. The Central Bank last year authorised a new subsidiary of Ulster Bank, called Ulydien Trust Company, to act as a service company over a trust set up to hold unclaimed funds of former customers' closed accounts and products, according to its latest annual report. Migration of these funds to the trust ensures that unclaimed customer balances are safeguarded and available to beneficial owners should they seek to reclaim them in the future, the report said. Unclaimed funds of less than €100 in individual accounts were given to charity, though the owners retain a right to reclaim their money. Last September, Ulster Bank transferred to AIB the last €1 billion of the €5 billion of tracker loans it had agreed to sell to the bank. It also completed the sale of its final home loans book, a portfolio of €400 million so-called offset mortgages, that same month to ICS Mortgages's parent, Dilosk. Ulster Bank's assets, which stood at €31 billion when NatWest decided in early 2021 to wind down the unit, fell by 75 per cent over last year to €516 million. Most of the remaining assets comprised money due from holding companies and fellow subsidiaries of NatWest. Ulster Bank has paid €1.59 billion of dividends to its UK parent over the past two years as it sought to free up much of its remaining surplus capital. It had a little over €300 million of equity on its balance sheet at the end of December, after it also racked up €707 million of net losses over the past two years as part of the wind-down. The lender received an effective £15 billion (€17.6 billion) bailout from British taxpayers during the financial crisis. The rescue bill equated to a third of the total UK government's £45 billion 2008 bailout of NatWest, back when the group was known as Royal Bank of Scotland. Ulster Bank paid €3.5 billion of dividends to its parent between 2016 and 2019. Adding the dividends paid over the past nine years and the remaining equity suggests NatWest will end up recovering only about 30 per cent of Ulster Bank's rescue bill. Ulster Bank had a 2,800-strong workforce when NatWest decided to wind down the business. Its staff numbers, including temporary employees, had fallen to 100 by the end of last year. Temporary workers averaged 21 last year.
Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
45-acre South Wexford farm for auction guiding at €16k/acre
Coming under the hammer on Tuesday, July 1, at the Ballinaboola Hotel outside New Ross in County Wexford is a 45-acre quality farm at Ballinruane – 16km to the south of the auction site. The auction will also be accepting bids online but the experience of auctioneers around the country is that when a hybrid auction such as this takes place, the main action is normally concentrated on the floor rather than via the internet. In any case, what's on offer is sure to entice – a substantial quantity of good grassland in a year when land parcels of this size have been scarce, according to selling agent Anne Carton of New Ross-based P N O'Gorman Auctioneers. 'It's all in permanent pasture… four to five units in very good condition with water laid on,' says Anne. 'It's an ideal size and surrounded by a couple of dairy farms. It was an outside farm and it's being sold as an executor sale. There's been good interest, so hopefully it will go well.' The price guide is in the region of €16,000/acre. It's one that should be achievable on the day. Read More Wexford tillage farm fetches almost €27,000/acre at auction
