Latest news with #PrimaryHealthProperties
Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Times
NHS landlord Assura keeps room to reject private equity takeover
The board of one of the NHS's biggest landlords has retained the option to reject a £1.6 billion offer from private equity in favour of merging with a rival. Assura, which owns hundreds of doctors' surgeries around the UK, said it had 'carefully considered' a merger offer proposed by Primary Health Properties last week and had decided to explore it further. The company had previously accepted a £1.6 billion takeover bid from KKR and Stonepeak, the pair of American private equity firms. However, that offer, despite being all in cash, has not been warmly received by all shareholders. One, who requested anonymity, called it a 'smash and grab raid'. • What would the doctor say about the bids for Assura? The US bidders have tabled a cash offer of 48½p for each Assura share, which values Assura at slightly less than what its buildings were last deemed to be worth. The bidders argue that they are giving shareholders a certain exit 'at a time of high market volatility' and after a tough few years. They also claim that only they can provide the 'access to capital' that Assura needs if it wants to grow its portfolio and that a tie-up with a rival 'may attract scrutiny' from regulators. Critics of their offer, however, argue that by selling out now, shareholders are likely to miss out on the expected rise in healthcare rents and property valuations over the coming years. They also feel that KKR and Stonepeak should be paying a premium for a multibillion-pound portfolio that took two decades to put together. As such, a number of Assura shareholders, including Schroders and Aberdeen Investments, have come out in favour of merging with PHP. Its offer, of 12½p in cash plus 0.3769 new PHP shares, works out to just over 51p for each Assura share. Under that deal, Assura shareholders would own 48 per cent of the enlarged group. Altrincham-based Assura was set up in 2003 and now owns more than 600 healthcare buildings worth £3.2 billion. Primary Health Properties owns 516 surgeries, dental practices and medical centres from Ramsgate up to the Scottish Highlands and across to Cork. Between them, they generated rental income of £333 million last year, close to 85 per cent of which is ultimately underpinned by the UK and Irish governments. PHP had a couple of earlier proposals quickly knocked back by Assura's board. Bjorn Zietsman, a real estate industry analyst at Panmure Liberum, said its latest offer, tabled last Friday, is 'significantly more compelling' than KKR and Stonepeak's. • Improved bid intensifies battle for NHS landlord Assura Assura's board confirmed that it has 'engaged in further discussions' with PHP and 'commenced due diligence' to determine which offer it should back. Its formal recommendation to shareholders remains to vote in favour of the KKR bid when the time comes, although it is now reviewing that position. The vote had been due to be held in early June but it has been postponed while it assesses the merits of a tie-up with PHP. Although shareholders do not have to follow the board's recommendation, their view is important as passive investors, index tracker funds, for example, usually vote however management suggests. KKR and Stonepeak have so far refused to increase their offer despite the emergence of a rival bidder, although they can still choose to do so. However, one Assura investor said: 'This doesn't come down to a penny or two. If they [come back] with 60p, then we'll talk.' Assura shares fell marginally on the day, closing at 49p, while PHP rose by 0.1 per cent at 98¾p.
Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Times
What would the doctor say about the bids for Assura?
There are myriad ways to take the temperature of the UK stock market. But what better than this: a bid battle for a business whose buildings house GP surgeries? It's the dust-up for Assura, the healthcare-focused real estate investment trust (Reit). On offer? Two different sorts of medicine: a £1.61 billion cash bid from private equity firms KKR and Stonepeak, which would see Assura vanish from the London Stock Exchange; and a cash-and-shares offer from its rival, Primary Health Properties, worth about £1.7 billion, that would create a bigger UK-quoted Reit. The headline prices are only one clue as to which is the better bid. The take-private duo are offering a cash exit at 49.4p a share, including Assura's 0.84p quarterly dividend paid in April.
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Battle for a FTSE listing: Will Assura do the right thing for shareholders and for Britain? asks ALEX BRUMMER
Contested takeovers among UK-listed companies have become a novelty. So, the current battle for healthcare property outfit Assura is something of an exception. Current bid practice is for overseas or private equity buyers to make an offer at a substantial premium – anything from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. The target company's board declares it has no choice but to accept or the directors would be in breach of fiduciary duty. Most of this is stuff and nonsense. If there is enough willpower, boards can resist predators apparently bearing gifts. Anglo American opted for self-help a year ago when it came under siege from Australia-based miner BHP. Going back, the FTSE 100 and British pharma would be in a much worse place if AstraZeneca had not seen off Pfizer in 2014. Assura potentially had three choices. It could have fought for its independence, accept an offer from rival Primary Health Properties (PHP) or go with an alternate private equity offer from the European arm of behemoth KKR. As matters stand PHP is in pole position, having raised its initial bid to £1.68billion, which is 4.7 per cent higher than KKR. The private equity firm argues that it is a less risky option as it would avoid detailed scrutiny by the Competition and Markets Authority and has a powerful balance sheet to energise Assura's expansion. For that matter, it could probably wait for PHP and Assura to consummate a deal and buy the whole caboodle. The better answer for the UK, where FTSE-quoted firms have become an endangered species, would be an all- British deal. It would face the difficulty of in-sector mergers which often founder over who would run things, different cultures and blending borrowing arrangements. At the very least, however, there would be the requirement for public scrutiny and shareholder democracy. Assura is in a better position to opt for a listed deal than many bids for UK companies. A glance at the share register shows that. Blackrock is the biggest holder with 9.9 per cent of the equity. However, UK long investors including Schroder with 5.4 per cent. L&G, Aberdeen and Quilter are all among the top ten shareholders. They have no need to surrender. Indeed, it would be counter-intuitive for UK long funds to back KKR when there is so much pressure from Rachel Reeves and the Treasury to back Britain's equity. One trusts that chairman Ed Smith and his board will do the right thing for shareholders and the public interest. Tax tantrum Donald Trump is unwavering in his belief that lower taxes encourage entrepreneurship and growth. But backing for supply-side economics comes at a cost. The Republican tax-and-spend bill which overcame a hurdle on Sunday is projected to add as much as $3trillion to an already-bulging budget deficit by 2034. Efforts by Republican fiscal conservatives to pay for tax reductions by axing some Medicaid and nutrition assistance for the least well-off will be politically troubling. The choice of cut targets has mild echoes of Chancellor Rachel Reeves. She seeks to fund her priorities – public sector wages and the NHS – by cutting the winter fuel allowance and personal independence payments. If endorsed by the Senate, Sunday's decisions would raise the US debt as a ratio of output to a stonking 138 per cent. This was enough stress to trigger ratings agency Moody's to downgrade America's credit rating. The consequences are to be seen on the bond markets where the yield on two-year, ten-year and 30-year US government treasuries climbed. Britain's ten-year gilt rose in sympathy, adding to the Chancellor's fiscal struggles. America's superior growth record means it is more able to withstand bond market anxiety than G7 competitors. Whisky galore Diageo has been troubled over the last year, shedding 24 per cent of value. It is not being helped by Trump's tariffs, which has added around £110million of expense. The market should be reassured by cost cuts and selective disposals. Strong core drinks such as Johnnie Walker and Guinness should see it through a nasty dip. Scotch, unlike other spirits, is less vulnerable to fashion.
Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Improved bid intensifies battle for NHS landlord Assura
A battle for control of a landlord of hundreds of British doctors' surgeries has intensified as Assura received an improved bid from a fellow property investor valuing the business at close to £1.7 billion. Assura said that Primary Health Properties (PHP), another major NHS landlord, had returned with an improved offer after a previous bid was rejected in April. The latest PHP bid, worth £1.68 billion, is also higher than the £1.61 billion offered by KKR and Stonepeak Partners, the American private equity giants, which Assura said it had accepted last month. Assura said: 'The board of Assura is currently reviewing the PHP offer with its advisers. A further announcement will be made in due course. In the meantime, shareholders are advised to take
Bloomberg
16-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
PHP Sweetens Bid for Rival Assura as It Seeks to Unseat KKR
Primary Health Properties Plc has made a revised cash and share offer for rival healthcare landlord Assura Plc that values the company at about £1.68 billion ($2.2 billion). The company's bid implies a total value of 51.7 pence for each Assura share, a 4.7% premium to the cash deal from KKR & Co. and Stonepeak Partners that's been recommended to shareholders, according to a statement Friday. The offer is comprised of 0.3769 new PHP shares and 12.5 pence in cash for each Assura share, it said.
