NHS landlord Assura poised to accept £1.6bn bid from KKR consortium

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the UK property myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Private infrastructure investors are poised to acquire NHS landlord Assura in a £1.6bn deal, marking the latest potential exit of a London-listed group from the UK market.

Buyout giant KKR and infrastructure backer Stonepeak Partners have made a nonbinding offer to acquire the company for 49.4p per share, a 32 per cent premium to its closing price before KKR’s takeover interest was first publicised last month.

Assura said on Monday its board would be “minded to recommend” the deal, should KKR and Stonepeak make a firm offer on those terms. The company has rejected four approaches from KKR in recent weeks, according to a KKR statement last month, including its most recent offer of 48p per share.

Assura’s shares rose by 14 per cent in early trading in London, to 46.5p.

KKR had earlier teamed up with the Universities Superannuation Scheme for a deal, but USS then said it would not make an offer for Assura. Assura and USS last year had entered into a joint venture to invest in NHS infrastructure.

On Monday, Assura said it had also rejected an offer of an all-share merger with Primary Health Properties that would equate to about 43p per share, having concluded that KKR and Stonepeak’s cash offer was “more attractive”.

FTSE 250 company Assura owns hundreds of doctors’ surgeries and healthcare centres in the UK, with an investment properly value of £3.2bn in September.

A takeover would make it the latest UK-listed group to be taken private by investors seeking bargains on the London markets. Cybersecurity group Darktrace and investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown were among the companies agreeing to be bought last year.

Public landlords have been particularly attractive as targets for dealmakers, as the commercial property sector emerges from a two-year slump brought on by higher interest rates. Recent transactions have included Brookfield and Segro’s deal to divide up Tritax EuroBox’s warehouse portfolio.

KKR has also been an active investor in the UK’s infrastructure sector, including submitting a preliminary £4bn bid last month to take a majority stake in Thames Water.

Its approach for Assura adds to a steady stream of dealmaking activity since the start of the year. Last month, the embattled oil services and engineering company Wood Group entered takeover talks with the UAE’s Sidara.