The hospitals arm of private health insurance provider BUPA is attracting serious market attention. Following aggressive bidding in the first round, the sale of 26 BUPA hospitals could net the company up to £1.4 billion.
Buyers for the hospital are numerous, with bids coming in from the international financial health sector and beyond. Private equity groups Blackstone, Cinven and CVC are all in the game, as is the Australian investment bank Macquarie. The largest private hospital operator in Australia, Ramsay Health Care, is also heading for a joint bid.
BUPA are expected to choose a bidder in June. The hospitals, not the first in the BUPA portfolio to be sold, treat around 250,000 paying customers every year. BUPA will not sell the hospitals to an existing UK hospital sector company.




