Lawrence Graham advised the shareholders in Cygnet 2002 Limited (“Cygnet”) on the sale of 25% of its share capital to Grove Investments UK Limited (“Grove Investments”) for £30m. Grove Investments UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Grove Limited which is the ultimate parent of Barchester Healthcare Limited.
The deal marks a strategic health alliance between Cygnet, owners of Cygnet Healthcare – one of the UK’s largest operators of private psychiatric hospitals – and the British nursing home group Barchester Healthcare.
The deal will also involve majority shareholders of Cygnet, John Hughes and Ken Wilson, taking a stake £7m stake in Grove Limited and taking seats on the Grove Limited and Barchester Healthcare boards.
The Cygnet Group has appeared in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list of the UK’s fastest growing private companies for the past three years.
Lawrence Graham corporate partner Tim Casben, who led the team advising Cygnet with assistance from solicitor Claire Steel, said:
“We first acted for Cygnet and its shareholders when they bought-out their private equity backers in 2000 and we are delighted to continue to be involved in their increasing success. The deal was complicated by the generous staff share schemes that Cygnet has in place which resulted in the acquisition being made by way of partial offer.”
Acting for Grove Investments was Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Michael Anderson.
