Spire Healthcare takeover deadline for Toscafund extended to June 25

June 11 (Reuters) – Britain’s Spire Healthcare said on Thursday that a deadline for Toscafund Asset Management to confirm its £1 billion ($1.33 billion) buyout proposal for the private hospital operator has been extended to June 25.

If agreed, the deal would hand the asset manager, also Spire’s second-largest investor, control of Britain’s largest provider of hip and knee operations, at a time when record NHS waiting lists have driven a surge in demand for private healthcare.

Here are some details: 

• Toscafund offered to buy Spire at 250 pence per share on May 14, a steep 66% premium to its close the day before.

• The asset manager built a near-11% stake in Spire while opposing Ramsay Health Care’s 250 pence-per-share proposal for Spire in 2021; it now made its bid at the same price.

• In March, Spire said that its buyout talks with private equity firms Bridgepoint and Triton had ended.

• Shares in the hospital operator, which gained nearly 50% since Toscafund’s proposal, were up 3.5% at 221.5 pence as of 1319 GMT on Thursday.

• Spire had launched a strategic review in September last year under pressure from activist investor Harwood Capital to consider a possible sale.

($1 = 0.7493 pounds)

(Reporting by Tuhina and Roshni Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Diti Pujara)