Sovereign's City & County Extends Complex Care Offering With Acquisition of ISS Healthcare

LONDON, March 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, today announces the acquisition of ISS Healthcare Limited ("ISS") by portfolio company City & County Healthcare Group ("City & County"), extending the Group's complex care offering and marking its first acquisition in Wales.  

ISS provides care in the home from its two branches, in Torfaen, South Wales and Birmingham; the Torfaen branch was established in 2001, with the Birmingham branch following two years later. It employs nearly 200 care staff, who provide a mixture of complex care, 24 hour care, elderly care and private care, supporting each service user to live independently in their own homes.  The company is strongly focused on the quality of care it provides and, in addition to regulatory assessments, it operates its own care monitoring and quality assessment by conducting spot checks, performance audits and feedback for care workers.

Post-acquisition, the two branches will continue to be run by their experienced Registered Managers, Marion Guest and Joanne Pickett, of Torfaen and Birmingham respectively. Guest joined ISS over 10 years ago while Pickett joined ISS in 2004; both had built up significant experience in the domiciliary care sector beforehand.

The acquisition of ISS is City & County's fourteenth since Sovereign invested in the Group in September 2009. In addition to this acquisitive growth, the company has seen strong organic growth, and it is now the fourth largest domiciliary care provider in the UK, offering around 140,000 hours of care per week. In recognition of this growth, City & County was ranked at 36 in the Sunday Times '2012 Buyout Track 100'.

Commenting on the transaction, Dominic Dalli, Partner at Sovereign Capital, said: "This acquisition builds on City & County's strong growth during 2012, reflecting both the Group's reputation for offering high-quality services and the preference of service users to be cared for in their own homes wherever possible.  Despite the challenging economic climate, City & County has now quadrupled the number of care hours it provides per week since our investment began three and a half years ago."

Craig Rushton, Group CEO of City & County, said: "The addition of ISS marks a significant step in City & County's continued growth as it both extends our complex care offering and expands our geographic reach into Wales for the first time. ISS has built an outstanding reputation for the quality of its services, in line with our commitment to acquire only outstanding providers, and we are delighted to welcome its experienced staff to our Group."  

Notes to editors:

Lloyds Acquisition Finance provided additional debt to support the bolt-on, having funded a number of City & County Healthcare's acquisitions in recent years.

Sovereign's deal team: Dominic Dalli, Jonathan Kay and Ed Goddard

Sovereign would like to thank its advisors:

KPMG - Financial, Andy Russell

Marriott Harrison - Legal, Dee Sian,

Lloyds Banking Group - Debt Provider, Jeremy Perl and Steve Carr

Sovereign Capital, (http://www.sovereigncapital.co.uk) the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, has a strong track record and specific expertise in the service based sectors of healthcare, education & training and business support services. Sovereign Capital is focused on investing in lower mid-market UK consolidators requiring up to £50m of equity.

For further information please contact:

Julie Sieger, Sovereign Capital: +44(0)20-7340-8800