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A US private equity consortium which includes KKR has agreed a £1.7bn deal for NHS landlord Assura following a months-long bidding process, in the latest takeover of a London-listed company.
Assura, which owns hundreds of UK doctors’ surgeries and healthcare centres, on Wednesday said it had reached agreement on terms of a “best and final” cash offer from KKR and Stonepeak.
The company had in April agreed to a £1.6bn bid from KKR and Stonepeak, but last month said it would consider an offer from its rival Primary Health Properties, which would have kept the company in the UK market.
“After nearly a year of engagement, this is our best and final offer which we believe is lower risk than other alternatives and higher in value,” said Andrew Furze, managing director at KKR.
Making a final offer means the KKR consortium would not be allowed to increase its bid unless it gets consent from the UK’s Takeover Panel.
A takeover would mark the latest delisting of a London-listed group. This week private equity group Advent International said it was in talks to buy industrial group Spectris in a £4.4bn deal, while US semiconductor group Qualcomm agreed a $2.4bn takeover of chip designer Alphawave.
Last week, UK fintech Wise announced plans to move its primary listing to the US, following plumbing group Ferguson and building materials company CRH.
Separately on Wednesday, Canadian professional services group WSP Global agreed a £281mn offer for UK-listed engineering consultancy Ricardo.
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