(Bloomberg) — Australian hospitals operator Ramsay Health Care Ltd. has struck a deal to acquire one of Britain’s biggest private providers of mental health services just months after an earlier deal to buy another independent hospital chain in the country came apart.
Ramsay will pay A$1.4 billion ($1 billion) for Elysium Healthcare, which runs 72 sites including rehabilitation centers and mental health services for children from private equity firm BC Partners, the company said Monday. Ramsay is using the deal as a chance to enter the growing U.K. mental health hospital market at scale and strengthen its relationships with the big stakeholders in the nation’s system including its National Health Service, it said.
The deal marks a quick rebound for the Australian hospital operator after its first major offshore acquisition in years with private hospital operator Spire Healthcare Group Plc, worth about $1.4 billion, unraveled in July as it failed to win the backing of enough shareholders.
“The acquisition of Elysium will expand Ramsay’s patient pathways into the 15 billion pound ($19.87 billion) U.K. mental health market at a time when more and more people are seeking support for mental health, learning difficulties and neurological issues,” Ramsay Chief Executive Officer Craig McNally said in a statement.
The private sector has been steadily increasing its share of that total, Ramsay said, at the same time as the federal government has committed to increase its funding for mental health services by 2.3 billion pounds by 2023–2024 as part of its long-term plan for the nation’s health system.
Ramsay operates hundreds of facilities across 11 countries.
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