OFT looking at Tranform deal

COMPETITION chiefs are looking into a completed deal that gives General Healthcare Group joint control over Altrincham-based cosmetics firm Transform.

Private healthcare provider General Healthcare Group (GHG), whose primary business is BMI Healthcare, has acquired a 42% stake in Transform.

TheBusinessDesk learned in late April that a deal, understood to be worth around £70m, was imminent.

Completed at the end of May, it gives GHG joint control over Transform Holdings Limited, the holding company for Transform Medical Group.

GHG has also taken over four private hospitals hospitals that were ultimately controlled by Transform parent company Covenant Healthcare Group.

The Office of Fair Trading has said it is inviting comment on the deal, which has brought to an end almost two and a half years of uncertainty for Transform, since parent Covenant first breached its loan covenants with HBOS, now part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

The group was unable to sustain the huge debt that had been heaped on it following its sale in 2005 to mid-market private equity firm Cognetas from Phoenix Equity Partners for £170m, with around £90m of the funding from HBOS.

Chief executive Nigel Robertson told TheBusinessDesk in April that uncertainty over the future ownership of the group had held back investment the business and impacted on performance.

Nigel Robertson, Covenant and Transform’s chief executive, said of the deal: “GHG, as the market leader in private healthcare, is the perfect partner for our business. We are delighted to have the group on board and look forward to working together in developing the business.”

Adrian Fawcett, General Healthcare Group chief executive, said:  “We are very pleased to be investing in Transform and to be a major shareholder in the business.

“This investment complements our existing subsidiaries perfectly; with BMI Healthcare as our main business and stakes in CARE Fertility and now Transform, we are continuing to rapidly grow and strengthen our top position in the independent healthcare market.”