MITIE acquires leading home care service provider Enara

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MITIE Group PLC ("MITIE"), the strategic outsourcing company, is pleased to announce that it has acquired Enara Group Limited ("Enara"), from August Equity LLP and Enara's senior management team, for a total consideration of £110.8m on a cash and debt free basis. Enara is the fourth largest provider of home care services in the UK and will give MITIE a scalable platform to compete in the growing outsourced health and social care sector.

Enara provides high quality home care in the UK, delivering a wide range of services to people who require help and support due to illness, disability or infirmity. The business cares for people via local authority, NHS and private pay agreements.

For the year ending 31 March 2013, Enara is expected to have revenue of £93m and operating profit before amortisation of £10.1m. Costs of approximately £5m are expected to be incurred within the first 12 months following the completion of the acquisition to support its integration into MITIE. The gross assets of the business are £97.3m*. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing before integration costs in the year ending 31 March 2013 and thereafter. The acquisition has been funded by the use of new bridge debt facilities of £150m provided by existing lenders to the group, which will be refinanced into longer term debt facilities in due course. 

The community care market is a significant strategic opportunity for MITIE and an ideal entry point into the health and social care sector. The demographic and economic drivers of an ageing population, together with on-going cost pressure is encouraging a shift both from hospitals and residential care homes towards greater care in the community. The provision of this care is increasingly being outsourced by local councils and health authorities to the private sector, generating significant opportunities for growth.

The home care business will utilise MITIE's expertise in developing and motivating a large and diverse team of people and will benefit from both innovations in quality and the use of technology and efficiencies that can be introduced from MITIE's existing infrastructure. MITIE intends to support the public provision of integrated healthcare by working with the NHS and local authorities to combine community based rehabilitation, elderly and long term care with social care functions.

MITIE has created a dedicated Health Advisory Board to develop the strategic direction of its healthcare offering. The board will comprise Dr Andy Dun, Managing Director of Enara, two MITIE representatives and three independent, non-executive directors who bring extensive experience of the healthcare sector. The independent directors include Edward Lavelle (former regulatory operations director of Monitor, the independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts) and James Barlow (Professor of Technology and Innovation Management Healthcare at the Imperial College London Business School).

Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE, Chief Executive of MITIE, said: "We are delighted to have made this strategic acquisition, which establishes us as a market leader in home care. Enara will provide us with a step-change in our service proposition as well as a platform to grow in the wider healthcare sector. We welcome Enara's people to MITIE."

Dr Andy Dun, Managing Director of Enara, said: "Enara has been providing high quality home care in the UK since 1996 and we are very proud of our excellent reputation with the people we care for and their families. We look forward to developing the business and working as part of MITIE."