Cinven sells off £136m stake in Spire Healthcare
SPIRE Healthcare shares slumped yesterday after private equity backer Cinven shrunk its stake further by placing £136.4m of shares with investors.
The placing, priced at 340p, represented a hefty discount to Spire’s 367p closing price on Monday night. Shares closed down more than 10 per cent yesterday, reflecting the lower placing price.
Private equity outfit Cinven now owns just over 38.3 per cent of Spire and has promised not to sell any more shares until mid-July. It owned 48.3 per cent before yesterday’s sale.
The group has gradually been slashing its holdings after it floated the healthcare company last year. It sold a further 10 per cent slug of shares in January, raising £126.3m.
JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley were appointed to sell the block in an accelerated bookbuilding. But Bank of America was conspicuous by its absence on the deal – it worked on the float and January placing.
In the original initial public offering last July, Cinven cut its stake from close to 100 per cent to 56.3 per cent.
Fund manager Neil Woodford has emerged as one of the group’s top shareholders, with a 10 per cent stake.
Spire is the UK’s second biggest private hospital chain behind BMI and is made up of 39 private hospitals and 13 clinics.