May 2008
Tax Changes Create a Bonanza
Healthcare deal makers, Hazlewoods, faced an unprecedented race against time to complete a flood of sales and mergers ahead of the changes in the Capital Gains Tax regime coming into force. Seventeen business sales and acquisitions valued at £138 million were completed in the three months to 5 April as owners sought to beat the changes introduced by Alistair Darling on 5 April. Recently released figures from H M Revenue & Customs show how frenzied the rush was. The numbers show that in the last quarter of the 2007/08 tax year applications for Capital Gains Tax clearances for complicated arrangements surged by 57%.
Transactions completed include:
• Sale of Kentwood Limited to Lifeways Community Care Limited
• Acquisition of Robertson Nursing Home on behalf of K B Premier Care Limited
• Acquisition of Home Life Options Limited by The SLC Group Limited
• Acquisition of Beacon Care by CareTech Holdings Limited
• Sale of Henwick Grange Nursing Home Limited
• Acquisition of Norton Homes Limited by Deepdene Care Limited
• Sale of a major London based fostercare agency
• Acquisition of Galleon Care Homes by Titleworth Healthcare Limited
• Acquisition of Barleycare Limited by CareTech Community Services Limited
• Acquisition of Denehurst Care by Contemplation Holdings Limited
• Sale of Happen Fostercare Limited to Fostering Solutions Limited
• Acquisition of Hampton Grange Nursing Home by Lynhales Hall Nursing Home Limited
Norman Webber, Head of Corporate Finance, commented, “We, like many others, have felt the affect of the deal frenzy which resulted in many late nights but we successfully achieved significant savings for clients. That said, we noticed a number of potential sellers chose to avoid the rush and concentrate on building value in their business and hopefully these deals will emerge in the not too distant future. A number of vendors who missed the 5 April deadline can still take advantage of the new entrepreneur relief effective from 6 April, which enables them to sell the business and potentially pay tax at 10% on the first £1 million.”
For further information on this press release, please contact:
Norman Webber Andrew Brookes
LLP Corporate Finance Partner LLP Corporate Finance Partner
nlw@hazlewoods.co.uk ab@hazlewoods.co.uk