Article from the Irish Times
France’s Orpea to become State’s largest private nursing home operator
Reputed deal of over €100m makes firm largest private player
Joe Brennan
Thu, May 13, 2021, 06:00
French care homes company
OrpeaGroup has agreed to buy the FirstCare collection of nursing homes from businessman
Mervyn Smith in a deal understood to be worth more than €100 million, propelling it into the position of the largest private player in the sector in the State.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has been notified in recent days that Orpea is acquiring FirstCare’s six nursing homes, including three facilities on a campus in
Glasnevin in north Dublin, two homes in Co
Wicklow, and one in Co
Kildare.
Deal
A spokeswoman for Paris-listed Orpea declined to give specifics on the deal, while a spokeswoman for FirstCare also declined to comment beyond the listing on the CCPC website, saying the transaction is subject to non-disclosure agreements as it is being assessed by the competition authority.
Four of the underlying properties in the nursing home group were acquired in 2017 by a French property investment company, called
Promonial Reim, under a sale-and-leaseback deal. Mr Smith is known to own the remaining two buildings, Beneavin Lodge and Beneavin Manor, in the Glasnevin complex.
The six homes comprise 552 beds. It is believed that the deal with Orpea also involves pipeline nursing home developments linked to Mr Smith.
The planned purchase comes a little over a year after Orpea entered the Irish market by the TLC Nursing Home portfolio, made up of 674 beds, for €150 million. It subsequently bought the
Brindley Healthcare care home group in two stages, giving it another 574 rooms.
Brindley struck a deal last month to buy
Belmont Care, a nursing home in
Stillorgan, south Dublin, adding a further 161 beds. All told, Orpea will have 1,961 beds after the FirstCare purchase closes, making it the largest private operator in a fast-consolidating sector that has attracted a flood of European institutional investment in recent years.
Fund
The French group will surpass
Mowlam Healthcare, currently the market leader with about 1,600 beds, which was taken control of by Dublin-based investment firm
Cardinal Capital Group’s new private equity fund late last year.
Industry sources said CBRE
Irelandadvised FirstCare, while CBRE
Spainacted for Orpea.
The latest major transaction comes four months after the agreed sale of
Trinity Care, a nursing homes business comprised of more than 600 beds that was majority owned by businesswoman
Anne Heraty and her husband
Paul Carroll.
That deal, worth between €150 million and €200 million, involved Spanish care home operator DomusVi agreeing to take on the operating business and Belgian property company
Cofinimmo acquiring the underlying properties.
Cofinimmo said at the time that the Republic, with about 30,000 nursing home beds, was “less equipped than most other European countries” to deal with an ageing population, providing a large investment opportunity.
Orpea said last year that it intended to “continue expanding its assets in this country where the current offering is insufficient and an additional 10,000-plus beds need to be built by 2031”.
