UK workplace health provider agrees cash acquisition backed by £70 million bank debt and a £30 million bridge loan from Lord Ashcroft-controlled vehicle.
Optima Health PLC (AIM:OPT, OTC:OHLTF, FRA:J3N) has agreed to acquire PAM Healthcare, an occupational health and wellness services provider in the UK and Republic of Ireland, for about £100 million in cash as the AIM-listed group pursues its medium-term growth targets.
Completion is conditional only on clearance under Ireland’s foreign direct investment screening regime, which Optima said it expected within 90 days of signing, and the deal will mark an exit for the UK private equity investor LDC.
Optima, a provider of technology-enabled corporate health and wellbeing solutions, said the acquisition would “cement” its position as the leading provider of occupational health and wellbeing services in the UK and build on its existing presence in Ireland.
Jonathan Thomas, chief executive, said: “This transformational acquisition underscores our intent in delivering our stated strategic objectives and cements Optima’s position in its attractive and growing market.”
Thomas added: “The acquisition of PAM is highly complementary and synergistic for Optima and has been a high-priority target for a number of years.”
Optima said it had previously targeted £200 million of revenue and £40 million of adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, equivalent to a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin, “in the medium term”.
The company said the deal was expected to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share after the first full financial year following completion, rising to more than 25% adjusted EPS accretion by the end of the third full year after completion.
Optima said the combined underlying adjusted EBITDA would be more than £26 million before synergies, and that it expected revenue and cost efficiency synergies to rise to more than £5 million a year once fully integrated.
Financing will include £70 million of new committed secured debt facilities from existing banking partners HSBC and Barclays, with an initial three-year term and options to extend for up to two years.
Optima said it had also drawn a £30 million unsecured, short-term related party bridge facility from Deacon Street Partners, an entity controlled by Lord Ashcroft, with the loan interest-free unless not repaid within three months, when a 10% annual rate would apply.
Optima intends to repay the bridge facility through an underwritten open offer to raise £35 million at 175 pence a share, a discount of about 17.8% to the 213 pence closing mid-market price on 13 February 2026.
Deacon Street has committed to underwrite the open offer, with Optima saying it would consult the Takeover Panel in respect of Rule 9 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers and seek a waiver from independent shareholders if underwriting would otherwise trigger a mandatory offer.
PAM, established in 2004 and headquartered in Warrington, supports more than 1.5 million employees through more than 1,500 organisations and has more than 450 directly employed clinicians, Optima said.
Optima said PAM generated unaudited revenue of about £66.6 million in the year to 31 December 2025 and an unaudited adjusted EBITDA of £8.2 million, and that more than 90% of its budgeted 2026 revenues were underpinned by existing contracts.
In a separate announcement, the group said it had appointed Cavendish Capital Markets as its joint broker.