Shares in Spire Healthcare Group Plc (LSE:SPI) jumped 7.8% on Friday after Sky News reported that buyout firm Bridgepoint is drawing up plans for a formal offer worth around 230p a share, valuing Britain's biggest private hospitals operator at more than £1 billion.
According to Sky News, Bridgepoint, the former owner of Oasis Healthcare, the dentistry chain previously run by Spire's own chief executive Justin Ash, is serious about a bid, though a formal offer may not arrive before a Takeover Panel "put up or shut up" deadline of 5pm today. A further extension to the process is considered likely.
Bridgepoint and rival buyout firm Triton were first identified as potential suitors in January, with several other parties also said to have expressed interest, though it remains unclear how many plan to table formal bids.
Spire runs nearly 40 private hospitals across the UK, along with more than 50 clinics and medical centres, and works with close to 9,000 consultants. It treated more than 1.3 million patients in 2024 and is the country's largest provider of hip and knee operations.
The company put itself up for sale last autumn under pressure from shareholders frustrated by a flagging share price. Investors have also been pushing for value to be unlocked from Spire's substantial freehold property portfolio.
The mooted 230p offer would represent a meaningful premium to Thursday's closing price of 178p, though it still falls short of the 250p-a-share bid from Australia's Ramsay Healthcare that shareholders rejected back in 2021 as too low.
Spire's share traded as high as 192p in early dealings.