PHP outbids rival with £1.79bn takeover deal for Assura
NHS landlord Assura has backed an improved takeover offer from a healthcare investor amid the continued bidding war for the London-listed firm.
Assura said on Monday that its board has agreed a £1.79 billion offer from Primary Health Properties (PHP).
PHP had laid down a £1.68 billion bid last month but was outbid by a rival suitor, with a consortium led by US private equity firm KKR valuing the business at £1.7 billion.
Assura's directors said they believe the fresh deal is in the 'best interests' of the medical property firm's shareholders.
Both bidders have upped their offers several times in recent months to try and clinch a deal.
Assura owns more than 600 buildings, including doctors' surgeries, with a portfolio valued at around £3.1 billion. It has about 80 members of staff.
PHP, which is also listed on the London Stock Exchange, said it had agreed a deal worth around 55 pence per share.
Ed Smith, non-executive chair of Assura, said: 'Following recent engagement between PHP and Assura, PHP has today further increased the terms of its offer, and has also addressed some of the potential risks that Assura had previously raised.
'The Assura board has always been and will remain resolutely focused on carrying out its fiduciary duties in the interest of Assura shareholders and in this context has decided to recommend this increased offer from PHP.'
Harry Hyman, non-executive chair of PHP, said: 'The PHP board continues to believe in the strong strategic rationale of the combination, which will create a leading healthcare focussed listed REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) with the scale and expertise to deliver significant benefits for the shareholders in PHP and Assura.
'The Increased PHP offer, which is expected to deliver earnings accretion to both sets of shareholders, allows Assura shareholders to participate in significant upside compared to crystalising value in cash at an inflexion point in the current economic cycle, and benefit from the combined group's likely long-term rating, continuing capital growth and a growing dividend.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
29 minutes ago
- Reuters
EU and Canada to deepen ties with new security pact
BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters) - The European Union hosts Canada for a summit on Monday designed to deepen their already close ties as both face increased geopolitical threats, including a more hostile U.S. president, Russia and Middle East instability. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, who chairs EU summits, will greet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for a two-hour meeting in Brussels, a day before a NATO summit in the Hague. EU officials said the EU-Canada summit was not a "business as usual" meeting and marked a new era in bilateral ties. The two allies, who already have a free trade agreement, are due to agree to a security and defence partnership, the first the bloc has struck with a country from the Americas. The partnership will involve joint work on crisis management, cyber, maritime and space security, arms control, as well as support for Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than three years ago. It will also pave the way for Canadian companies to access the 150 billion euro ($172 billion) EU joint procurement programme SAFE. The two partners are also expected to launch negotiations on a digital agreement designed to shape global rules for data, such as on e-signatures and consumer protection or limits on spam. A draft of the joint statement refers to alignment of standards in digital regulation to make online platforms safer and more inclusive and AI systems more trustworthy, areas of regulation on which the United States has criticised the EU. ($1 = 0.8721 euros)
Times
32 minutes ago
- Times
Investment trust battles Fuji Media Holdings over sex assault scandal
A London-listed investment trust that branded a Japanese TV group embroiled in a sex assault scandal 'a total disgrace' has stepped up its campaign for the entire board to be replaced. Nippon Active Value Fund (NAVF), with its ally Los Angeles-based Dalton Investments, upped their stake in Fuji Media Holdings from 7.19 per cent to 7.51 per cent last week before the proxy fight on Wednesday. The shareholder revolt follows a scandal at the broadcaster that triggered public outrage and the departure of Masahiro Nakai, its star presenter, and is seen as a key test for the push to more accountable and shareholder-friendly governance standards in Tokyo-listed companies. Paul ffolkes Davis, chairman of Rising Sun Management, which manages NAVF, urged other shareholders in Fuji to vote against the company's 11 proposed board candidates and back instead its own slate of 12 nominees.
Reuters
34 minutes ago
- Reuters
Bank of England's Bailey defends bond programme after Reform UK criticism
LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey defended the central bank's programme of government bond purchases and sales which has come under fire from some politicians for its cost. In a letter to Richard Tice, deputy leader of the Reform UK party which is led by former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, Bailey said claims that the programme was more expensive than those run by other central banks did not tell the full story. Britain's government issued more long-term debt than other countries at a time when the BoE's bond-buying - or quantitative easing - was keeping borrowing costs low, giving the country a longer-lasting benefit, Bailey said. "Put simply, the cash flow cost of QE/QT is not therefore what it seems, and the outcome in these terms will be better," he said in the letter published on Monday. Reform - which is leading Britain's more established political parties in opinion polls - has said the government could save as much as 40 billion pounds ($53.6 billion) a year by stopping payment of interest to banks on reserves held at the BoE. Most of those reserves were created as a byproduct of the central bank's bond purchases which began in 2009 and reached a peak of almost 900 billion pounds in holdings in 2021. Since then, the BoE has sold much of its bond portfolio - known as quantitative tightening - and the programme is due to incur losses for the public finances because of a rise in interest rates and a subsequent fall in the value of the bonds. In his letter, Bailey said the bond purchases shielded Britain's economy from a string of economic shocks over the past 16 years. "It is easy to forget the severe problems we faced with these shocks," he said. "Although the counterfactual is unknowable with any precision, most estimates indicate that QE provided very significant support to the UK economy, protecting both jobs and tax revenues." Bailey said that ceasing paying interest on reserves was tantamount to increasing taxes on banks and would lead to lower interest payments for savers or higher interest rates for borrowers. He also disputed Reform's view that British banks were making excess profits. "Interest paid on reserves is not free money for the banks, not least as most of it is paid on to customers in the form of interest on their deposits," Bailey said.
