The board of Assura has rejected KKR’s fourth offer to acquire the British healthcare landlord in a deal that would have valued it at £1.56 billion ($2 billion).
KKR said Monday that its latest bid of 48 pence per share offers a “highly attractive opportunity” for Assura’s shareholders to realize their investment in cash at a significant premium to prevailing market prices.
The firm’s offer represents a 28% premium to Assura’s closing share price on February 13, but the bid also represents a discount of 2.8% to Assura’s net asset value of 49.4 pence as of September 30.
KKR must announce whether it will make a firm offer for Assura by March 14, but the firm said there can be no certainty a firm offer will be made. KKR’s three previous offers were rejected unanimously by Assura’s board.
“KKR is considering whether there is any merit in continuing to try and engage with the board,” the financial services firm said in its statement.
Assura’s shares jumped more than 18% in early trading Monday before paring back the gains to finish the day with a price of 42.5 pence a share, a gain of nearly 9%. The company’s market value now stands at £1.26 billion.
Assura is a property developer and owner of healthcare buildings in the U.K. The Altrincham-based business had a portfolio of 608 properties worth just over £3.1 billion as of September 2024.
On Friday afternoon, Assura said that it had received an unsolicited approach from KKR and USS Investment Management, which represents Universities Superannuation Scheme, a pension scheme for Britain’s higher education institutions.
Assura’s board said at the time that it would review the proposal with its advisers, while expressing confidence in the long-term prospects of the company and its ability to create value for shareholders.
But after the bid was rejected, USS Investment Management said Monday that it would not make another offer for Assura, as part of the consortium or otherwise.
KKR was founded in 1976 by Henry Kravis, George Roberts and Jerome Kolhberg. Jr. (who died in 2015). The firm known as “barbarians,” after the bestselling book that chronicled their $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988.
The private equity firm had popularized the practice of leveraged buyouts in the 1970s and 1980s and became the face of Wall Street’s conquest of corporate America, but in recent years the firm has adopted a buy and build approach toward its investments. The New York-based firm has more than 250 portfolio companies and more than $638 billion in assets under management.