Australian investment bank Macquarie is in advanced talks to acquire Barchester Healthcare, the UK care homes group that was put on the market last year by Irish billionaires Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier, The Irish Times has established. The group, with headquarters in London, runs more than 200 care homes and seven registered hospitals, and was put up for sale last July with a price tag of £2.5 billion (€2.9 billion). The Irish tycoons first invested in Barchester 25 years ago, a little over a year after it was set up by British entrepreneur Mike Parsons. Barchester sold its only Irish facility, the 117-bed Knightsbridge Care Village in Trim, Co Meath, to French-owned nursing home group CareChoice in 2017 for an estimated €20 million. Care homes sectorMacquarie has been an active buyer and seller of investments in the care homes sector over the past decade and a half.

Source: The Irish Times February 20, 2019 05:37 UTC