Blackstone raises £127.5m on placing

Blackstone has raised £127.5 million (€189 million; $247 million) after placing 40 million shares in Southern Cross Healthcare Group, an assisted living and care provider, according to a statement.  The group has retained 46 million shares after selling about half of its stake in the company at 3183p per share.

Southern Cross: the UK’s biggest nursing home operator

Shares in Southern Cross Healthcare rose by 26.25p to 345p following the placement, which was carried out by UBS and Morgan Stanley.

Blackstone bought Southern Cross Healthcare for £162 million in September 2004 in a secondary buyout.  Two months later it bolted-on NHP, a UK private nursing home company, for £564 million.  It then added Ashbourne Senior Living, a UK care home operator, for £85 million, making Southern Cross Healthcare the UK’s largest nursing home operator, with more than 580 care homes and 28,000 beds. 

It is Blackstone’s second transaction in the healthcare sector in a month, following Biomet, an orthopaedic products manufacturer, which Blackstone took private for $10.9 billion in December with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group.