Healthcare landlord Assura's shares leap on £1.6bn takeover offer

Healthcare landlord Assura has received a £1.6billion takeover bid from a pair of American investment firms.

New York-based KKR and Stonepeak Partners have put forward a 49.4 pence per share proposal valuing the real estate investment trust at £1.6billion.

It includes the 0.84p per share dividend Assura shareholders are due to receive on 9 April and represents a 2.9 per cent rise on KKR’s previous offer for the group in mid-February.

Leveraged buyout specialist KKR, which recently bought energy infrastructure company Smart Metering Systems, has now made five approaches for Assura in the past six months.

Assura owns hundreds of GP surgeries and healthcare centres across the UK, with a combined investment value of £3.2billion as of last September. 

Bosses at the company said they are ‘minded to recommend’ the offer to its investors if KKR and Stonepeak make a concrete bid based on the latest proposal.

It added: ‘Accordingly, the board has decided to engage in discussions with the consortium in relation to these terms and to allow the consortium to complete a limited period of confirmatory due diligence.’

Assura shares soared 14.2 per cent to 46.5p by early Monday afternoon, making them the FTSE 250’s best performer by far.

The Altrincham-based business also revealed it had turned down an all-share merger with fellow real estate investor Primary Health Properties (PHP) valuing its shares at about 43p each.

It said the KKR proposal ‘provides shareholders with the opportunity to receive cash consideration at a significantly higher value’ and has ‘materially less risk’ than PHP’s offer.

Under City takeover rules, PHP still has until 5pm on 7 April to either announce a concrete intention to bid for Assura or walk away.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘Once again, we have bid situations where the suitor has had to dig deeper into their pockets to try and win over the target’s shareholders.

‘Increased bids have become a regular occurrence over the past few years as bidders first try their luck with a cheeky offer and then play fair with a higher price a few days, weeks or months later.’

Asset management group DBAY Advisors has modestly raised its bid for Alliance Pharma to £362million, its sixth approach for the drug manufacturer.

Alliance’s board has recommended the deal to investors, who will vote on whether to accept it this Thursday.

The prospective Alliance and KKR bids come amidst a burst of foreign companies buying London-listed businesses at cheap valuations.

Gold miner Centamin, haulage firm Wincanton, and video game services provider Keywords Studios all fell into foreign hands last year.

Among the FTSE 100 groups to agree acquisition deals were cybersecurity giant Darktrace, packaging supplier DS Smith, and investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.