Hazlewoods Corporate Finance, a leading adviser in the Health and Care sector with a significant track record on acquisitions, disposals and raising finance, has recently advised on the acquisition by City & County Healthcare Group of the majority of the trade of Ark Home Healthcare, a nationwide home care provider with head offices in Sheffield. Ark offers a range of services for the elderly, and individuals with disabilities and illnesses, delivering around 50,000 hours of care per week through a support network of around 2,000 staff.
The Hazlewoods team was led by Corporate Finance Partner David Main and Associate Director Richard Pitt. The acquisition is the latest in a series for City & County, following the acquisition of Independent Community Care Management Limited in 2016 and, more recently, Constance Care Limited and Mi Care Southern Limited, all of which were acquired with support and advice provided by the Hazlewoods corporate finance team.
Established in 2009, City & County (backed by Graphite Capital) is one of the largest providers of community-based social care services in the UK. The business supports tens of thousands of people with care needs, enabling service users to continue living independently in their own homes. Key services include homecare, complex and live-in care, reablement services, and the provision of extra care facilities.
City & County’s acquisition of Ark sees the business continue along its strategic plan of acquisitive growth within the domiciliary care sector, combined with organic growth within the existing business. Ark will strengthen City & County’s existing presence within a number of key regions, as well as opening up new territories and opportunities for the business.
Hazlewoods worked closely with City & County’s Finance Director, Nick Goodban, throughout the deal. Nick commented: “The opportunity that presented itself with Ark was hugely time pressured, executing in under three weeks from expression of interest to deal completion with a window of only 10 days from offer acceptance to funds flow. Once under offer the Hazlewoods team was able to accept the engagement, call Richard back from a secondment, mobilise in under 24 hours and work day and night over the course of a one-week period to finalise the financial due diligence report and hence meet our financing deliverable to facilitate funding. The effort involved cannot be understated and I am hugely grateful for the professionalism and work ethic they showed in helping us meet that fixed completion date.”
Richard Pitt added: “We are delighted to have, once again, been involved in City & County’s acquisition of a high quality care provider. We have built an excellent working relationship with the business, and look forward to continuing to build on this in the future”.
Legal services were provided by Dee Sian and Rob Matthews of Keystone Law.