Private equity heavyweights KKR and Stonepeak have raised their takeover bid for UK-listed healthcare real estate firm Assura to nearly £1.7bn ($2.3bn), in what they describe as their “best and final” offer, according to a report by Reuters.
The buyout firms are aiming to win a bidding war with rival suitor Primary Health Properties (PHP) by making the revised all-cash offer, which values Assura at 52.1 pence per share, including dividends, narrowly topping PHP’s earlier proposal of 51.7 pence made last month. The new bid represents a 39% premium to Assura’s share price on February 13, the day before KKR and Stonepeak’s initial approach.
Assura, which manages a portfolio of over 600 medical properties valued at more than £3bn and has deep ties to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), has become the latest target in a wave of foreign private equity interest in undervalued UK assets.
“This offer is lower risk than other alternatives and involves no asset divestments,” said Andrew Furze, Managing Director at KKR, signalling a strategic push to simplify the transaction and appeal to existing shareholders.
In April, Assura backed an earlier version of the KKR-Stonepeak offer, which prompted PHP to enter the fray with a higher, partly stock-based counterproposal. While PHP’s bid was seen by some analysts as attractive due to its inclusion of equity and potential synergies with its existing UK-listed healthcare portfolio, the certainty of KKR and Stonepeak’s all-cash bid may now tip the balance.
As of Tuesday’s close, Assura had gained 32% since KKR-Stonepeak’s initial offer, with a market cap reaching £1.6bn.
