Overseas Investment Group Eye’s Barchester Health Care In £2bn Swoop

An Australian investment group is, according to press reports, in advanced discussions to buy Barchester Health Care for over £2 billion.

Barchester Healthcare currently owns more than 200 care homes housing 11,000 elderly people and employs around 17,000 staff across the UK.

According to Financial Time said owners, Irish businessmen Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier, were seeking £2.5bn for Barchester and had instructed JP Morgan to advise on the sale. The Irish tycoons first invested in Barchester 24 years ago, a little over a year after it was set up by British entrepreneur Mike Parsons.

Barchester is the latest large care home provider to go on the market this year following news that HC-One and Care UK were seeking buyers.

Macquarie’s interest in purchasing Barchester comes amidst a rising interest from specialist infrastructure funds in buying into Britain’s care home and healthcare industries.