Overseas firms investing in British private healthcare By Frieda Klotz

The past two years has seen a series of overseas investments in UK private healthcare companies. Last year the US hospital management firm Universal Health Services acquired Cygnet Health Care for approximately £205m and Acadia Healthcare, an American psychiatric provider, acquired Partnerships in Care (PiC) from its private equity owners Cinven for approximately $660m (£393m). In 2015, the Dallas- based Tenet Healthcare Corporation bought private hospital group Aspen Healthcare from Welsh Carson for $215m (£142m) as part of a deal that will see it form the largest provider of ambulatory services in the US. This was followed by the acquisition of Aspen’s property portfolio by US property investor Health Care REIT for £226m. This June, the South African hospital group Mediclinic acquired a 29.9% stake in Spire Healthcare for £432m while July saw GenesisCare, Austrlia’s largest provider of radiotherapy services, buy CancerPartners UK for an undisclosed sum.