3rd March 2022

Value Of Deals In Health And Social Care Sector Hitting “Record” Levels

The value of deals in the UK health and social care sector is hitting record levels and stands at £6.01bn for 2021, according to BLM’s Health Sector Deals Diagnosis.

Conducted in partnership with Experian Market iQ, BLM’s Healthcare Deals Diagnosis tracks the quantity and value of transactions in the UK health and social care sector.

The 2021 data revealed that the value of deals significantly surpassed the combined deal valuation for 2019 of £2.26bn and 2020 of £1.22bn, outweighing their cumulative value by more than £2.53bn. Q2 2021 was the most active quarter in the year, with in excess of £3bn worth of deals: a more than 12-fold increase on Q2 2020 of £253m.

Major transactions include the £524m flotation of Oxford Nanopore Technologies in September 2021 and the £1bn investor buy-out of mental health care facility provider Priory Group in January 2021.

The analysis from BLM revealed that more than 27 per cent of deals that took place in 2021 were for businesses operating in dental practices activities. Transactions in residential care-related services accounted for 26 per cent of total activity. Deals include the £10.9m acquisition of residential care provider CPI Care Ltd by Civitas Social Housing plc.

In 2021, the South East saw the highest numbers of deals completed with 66, with the North West and London coming in joint-second with 46 deals each.

London had the highest value of transactions out of any region in the UK, with more than £4.26bn worth of deals taking place. London’s total Health & Social Care deal value was almost three times higher than combined deal value of the rest of the UK at £2.72bn.

Elsewhere, 23 deals completed in West Midlands, followed by East Midlands (22), South West England (20), Yorkshire & Humber (18), East of England (15) and North East England (13). The UK’s devolved nations saw the lowest levels of activity in Health & Social Care transactions, as Wales completed 13, ahead of Scotland (10) and Northern Ireland (10).

Daniel Varney, corporate partner at BLM, said: “Despite unprecedented levels of tension within UK Health & Social Care sector, the past few years has seen a huge increase to the value of deals in the health sector market.

“New challenges such as an increased need for digital transformation has created new opportunities for disruptive businesses that are curating new innovations and solutions. In turn, this has driven greater M&A activity.

“BLM’s Healthcare Deals Diagnosis is a good barometer into how attractive the health sector market is, with many regions outside of London seeing strong.”