Doughty in €355m Spain deal
BUYOUT group Doughty Hanson has bolstered its presence in the private healthcare market by agreeing to buy Spain’s third largest private hospital operator for €355m (£298m).
It will take USP Hospitales, a Madrid-based hospital chain, off the hands of creditors Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The firm’s bid represents a nine times multiple to USP’s forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2012.
Barclays and taxpayer-backed RBS control close to 70 per cent of USP since its former private equity owner Cinven handed its shares over to the two banks as part of a complex debt restructuring deal over two years ago.
The deal is Doughty’s first since co-founder Nigel Doughty was found dead at his home in Lincolnshire at the weekend.
Francisco Gutiérrez Churtichaga, senior principal for Doughty Hanson, said demand for private healthcare is growing in Spain.
“[We] also believe that the company offers a unique platform from which to create a larger hospital group providing the right combination of technology and premises to deliver the best possible care to the private patient.”
USP has a strong presence in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville and operates 12 hospitals, one specialist clinic and 22 auxiliary clinics, with a total of more than 1,200 beds.
The deal comes as Spain’s much-valued public healthcare system is struggling as it becomes the latest victim of the Eurozone debt crisis. Some medical suppliers have not been paid for up to two years.
Doughty sold the Priory rehabilitation group in a deal valued at £875m in July 2005.
MEET THE ADVISERS
DAVID SMITH
RBS CORPORATE FINANCE
RBS Corporate Finance’s David Smith has been advising his parent bank on the sale of USP to Doughty Hanson.
Smith cemented his reputation last year while acting as defence adviser for engineering firm Charter International as it successfully fought off an unsolicited takeover approach from Melrose.
He later recommended that Charter accept a £1.5bn competing bid from Colfax.
Smith specialises in takeovers in the industrials and healthcare sector and has 18 years’ experience gained at Morgan Grenfell, Citigroup and Dresdner Kleinwort.
He has been assisted by a team that includes Paul Igoe, who worked on both RBS’ £422m disposal of 918 pubs to Heineken at the end of last year and Sahaviriya Steel Industries’ $469m acquisition of Teesside Cast Products in March 2011.
Doughty Hanson was advised by Rothschild bankers Borja Arteaga and Alberto Fernández, with both of them working on the deal from the firm’s Madrid office.