Bristol-based MITIE, the outsourcing pioneer best known for office cleaning, security and building maintenance, has moved into the expanding healthcare market by acquiring Enara, the UK’s fourth-largest provider of home care services.
MITIE said the £110.8m deal, announced today, gives it a scalable platform to compete in the growing outsourced health and social care sector.
Enara, provides high-quality home care in the UK, delivering a wide range of services to people who require help and support due to illness, disability or infirmity. The business cares for people via local authority, NHS and private pay agreements.
Enara, which MITIE has bought from August Equity and Enara’s senior management on a cash and debt-free basis, is expected to make operating profits of £10.1m on revenues of £93m in the year to March 31, 2013.
The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing before integration costs of approximately £5m in the year to March 31, 2013. MITIE has funded the takeover by using new bridge debt facilities of £150m provided by its existing lenders, which will be refinanced into longer-term debt facilities.
MITIE sees the community care market as a significant strategic opportunity and an ideal entry point into the health and social care sector.
It said: “The demographic and economic drivers of an ageing population, together with on-going cost pressure is encouraging a shift both from hospitals and residential care homes towards greater care in the community. The provision of this care is increasingly being outsourced by local councils and health authorities to the private sector, generating significant opportunities for growth.”
The home care business will utilise MITIE’s expertise in developing and motivating a large and diverse team of people and will benefit from both innovations in quality and the use of technology and efficiencies that can be introduced from MITIE’s existing infrastructure. MITIE intends to support the public provision of integrated healthcare by working with the NHS and local authorities to combine community-based rehabilitation, elderly and long-term care with social care functions.
MITIE is developing the strategic direction of its healthcare offering by creating a dedicated health advisory board made up of Enara managing director Dr Andy Dun, two MITIE representatives and three independent, non-executive directors. These include Edward Lavelle, the former regulatory operations director of independent NHS foundation trust regulator Monitor, and James Barlow, Professor of Technology and Innovation Management Healthcare at the Imperial College London Business School.
MITIE chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith said the Enara deal established the group as a market leader in home care.
“Enara will provide us with a step-change in our service proposition as well as a platform to grow in the wider healthcare sector,” she said.
