LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Primary Health Properties said on Friday that it has made a third takeover offer for Assura valuing the group at £1.68bn, trumping the £1.61bn offer from investment firms KKR and Stonepeak Partners that Assura accepted last month.
The latest offer of 51.7p per share is a 38.2% premium to the closing share price on 13 February, the last business day prior to the start of the offer period. Assura has already rejected offers of 46.2p and 43p a share from PHP.

Primary Health chief executive Mark Davies said: "Our offer announced today enables the shareholders in PHP and Assura to benefit from the rising demand for primary care. The enhanced financial strength of a larger REIT, which is committed to maintaining a strong investment grade credit rating, and is expected to have a reduced cost of capital and annualised cost synergies of approximately £9m.

"The benefits of a combination of PHP and Assura are compelling and set out above. We have carefully crafted our offer which is expected to deliver earnings accretion to both sets of shareholders, underpinning our progressive dividend policy in the future, which remains crucially important. We encourage shareholders to support the combination and look forward to capturing the significant opportunity to create shareholder value in the future from the combined entity."

In a brief statement, Assura said its board is currently reviewing the PHP offer with its advisers and that a further announcement will be made in due course.

Assura announced in April that it had agreed to be taken over by KKR and Stonepeak for 49.4p a share, which is a 33.5% premium to the closing price on 13 February.

The company's CEO, Jonathan Murphy, said at the time: "The cash offer from KKR and Stonepeak offers an attractive opportunity for Assura shareholders to crystallise value immediately."

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