Australian health firm Ramsay Health Care has increased its offer for UK business Spire Healthcare Group to £1.04bn ($1.44bn, €1.21bn).
In May, Ramsay made a bid for the UK healthcare group for approximately £1bn, but according to reports, some Spire shareholders rejected it.
Under the terms of the offer, shareholders will be entitled to receive £2.50 a share, which makes the bid around £1.04bn.
The acquisition by Ramsay Health Care UK will be complete through a scheme of arrangement, which requires at least 75% of shareholders to vote and more than 50% of votes to be in favour of the acquisition.
Ramsay said that this is the final offer for Spire and it “will not be increased”, except that the Aussie company reserves the right to increase the offer price if there is an announcement on or after the date of this announcement of an offer or a possible offer for Spire by a third-party firm.
‘Fair and reasonable’
Craig McNally, chief executive and managing director of Ramsay, said in a London Stock Exchange statement on 5 July: “We are confident that our 250 pence cash offer per Spire share, which was reached after extensive negotiations with the Spire board, is fair and reasonable. It is therefore our best and final offer.
“We have been operating in the UK market for 15 years and as such have strong operational insight and a good appreciation of the industry dynamics and long term outlook for the market. We have called on this deep understanding to determine what we believe is a full and fair price for the Spire business.
“Our offer provides Spire shareholders with the ability to realise a premium on their investment in the near term at an attractive valuation multiple, without the execution risks associated with delivery of the Spire stand-alone strategy – many of which are outside of its control.
“The proposed acquisition of Spire enables us to build a broader platform from which to continue to deliver best in class healthcare and lead the way on patient outcomes, through bolstered partnerships with private health insurers, the NHS, our doctors, clinicians and associated clinical networks.”
The Spire directors also “consider the terms of the increased final offer to be fair and reasonable”.
