Social impact investor Civitas Investment Management (CIM) has acquired a portfolio of specialist care properties from CareTech under a sale and leaseback arrangement for £200m.
The portfolio comprises a mix of children’s homes, special schools and adult specialist care homes. CIM currently manages an estate of more than 1,200 properties across the UK, with capacity to provide homes for more than 10,000 people.
Tom Pridmore, CIM group director, said: “We are very impressed by the quality of the CareTech portfolio, and we’re pleased to partner with one of the leading care providers in the UK in this landmark transaction. Despite the difficult economic backdrop this year, CIM has continued to invest across specialist care sector, based on the strong fundamentals and long-term demand for high quality specialist care properties in the UK and Europe.”
Farouq Sheikh, co-founder and executive chairman of CareTech, added: “We are delighted to partner with CIM, whom we recognise as being one of the leading responsible investors in the specialist social care sector. This transaction comprises a small proportion of our £1bn freehold asset portfolio and forms part of our overall strategy which will enable us to continue our growth trajectory in the UK, in digital technologies and international markets.”
Julian Evans, head of healthcare at Knight Frank, which acted as sole selling agents for CareTech, said: “This is an excellent result for both CareTech and Civitas. The provenance of CareTech complements Civitas’s continued investment into high quality care facilities and operations. The take private process of CareTech has been complex, and given recent UK economic turbulence, in many ways, reaffirms that this transaction is a flight to quality.”
