Primary Health Properties ups Assura bid to £1.5bn

Primary Health Properties (PHP) has made a revised £1.5bn (€1.8bn) cash-and-share merger proposal to Assura for the UK healthcare property investor, an offer that remains below the latest £1.6bn bid from KKR and its partner Stonepeak Partners.

PHP’s proposed combination will give Assura shareholders 0.3848 new PHP shares and 9.08p in cash for each share they hold. The PHP offer includes a flexible option for Assura shareholders, allowing them to adjust the mix of new PHP shares and cash they receive.

The proposal, which also includes a yet-to-be-paid dividend, gives Assura shareholders 48% of the combined group’s issued share capital.

PHP, which previously acquired MedicX in 2019, said it was not a certainty that a formal offer for Assura would be made.

Assura responded that it was reviewing PHP’s proposal in line with the board’s objective of maximising shareholder value. 

Last month, KKR teamed up with Stonepeak Partners to make a £1.6bn bid for Assura, after KKR’s previous offer with UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, which was 2.9% lower, was rejected the previous month.

At the time, Assura said KKR and Stonepeak’s possible cash offer of 49.4p per share, which consists of a declared 0.84p quarterly dividend and 48.56p cash at closing, would likely receive its recommendation to shareholders, subject to the agreement of the other terms of the offer.

Assura had also disclosed receiving a non-binding all-share merger proposal from PHP, valued at 43p per Assura share but said the KKR consortium’s 49.4p cash offer was more attractive and therefore rejected the PHP proposal.

London-listed Assura, designs, builds, invests in and manages general practitioner and primary care buildings in the UK. As of the third quarter of last year, the company owned 625 healthcare buildings across the UK and Ireland, valued at  £3.2bn.

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