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.
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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.