Spain''s USP Hospitales lands in Cinven''s portfolio for $920 million

12 July 2007

Among Spain''s largest independent healthcare providers, USP Hospitales, will become a portfolio company of the UK private equity firm Cinven Ltd, which is acquiring it for €675 million ($920 million / Rs3,876.52 crore), beating at least two other bidders for the business, which last year reported revenues of €246.7 million.

USP is Cinven''s second deal in Spain since 2000, after it took part in the €4.3 billion-acquisition of Amadeus Global Travel Distribution in 2005, Spain''s largest leveraged buyout.

Cinven will acquire the 70-per cent stake in USP Hospitales, currently owned by Mercapital, Spain''s biggest domestic private equity firm. USP management may try to increase its existing stake of 20 per cent in the business, while Portuguese financial group Grupo Caixa Geral de Depósitos may be willing to retain the 10-per cent stake it took in USP in exchange for selling it a 25-per cent holding in its Lisbon-based healthcare subsidiary Hospitais Privados de Portugal, a deal that closed last month.

In June Cinven had acquired 25 hospitals from British health care provider BUPA for £1.44 billion ($2.90 billion / Rs11.77 crore).Cinven also owns Partnership in Care, which provides services to mental health patients.

Cinven does not expect any synergies between the Spanish and the UK operation, barring an exchange of best practices

USP Hospitales operates 13 hospitals and 16 outpatient centres and has a strong presence in Madrid and Barcelona and a focus on six specialties including internal medicine and general surgery. It also has about 2,000 physicians under contract.