UK’s Assura shareholders back PHP’s bid over KKR’s cash offer

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(Reuters) -Primary Health Properties said on Tuesday it had secured acceptances for 62.9% of Assura shares in its takeover bid for the British healthcare real estate investor, a rare show of investor support in the UK markets amid a wave of private equity buyouts in the recent past.

U.S.-based private equity firm KKR and PHP had been locked in a months-long battle for Assura before the British company’s board backed PHP’s higher bid in June.

On Tuesday, PHP confirmed that all remaining conditions tied to its revised $2.4 billion cash-and-stock offer for Assura have now been satisfied, implying that PHP can now proceed with the acquisition.

The successful bid from London-listed PHP marks a rare vote of confidence in the UK’s public markets after a string of firms have agreed to cash bids from private equity buyers in the past two years.

Analysts at Shore Capital said the completion of the deal was “not only a victory for the company but also one for critical UK infrastructure, the UK stock market, the delivery of healthcare in the British Isles and society at large.

Assura, which manages over 600 healthcare properties and whose customers include Britain’s state-backed National Health Service, on Friday reiterated its support for PHP’s takeover bid despite rival suitor KKR urging it to back the U.S. company’s offer.

(Reporting by Shanima A in Bengaluru and Charlie Conchie in London; Editing by Maju Samuel)