The Picture of Health Acqusition Finance - Volume 6 Issue 4, August 2007

April 1, 2008

The Picture of Health
Acqusition Finance - Volume 6 Issue 4, August 2007

LCS International Consulting's Joint Managing Director, Paul Saper, talks to ACQ about an ongoing revolution in healthcare and flags up the company's eighth annual conference.

Morag Dickson reports.

Describe the landscape in the public and private healthcare sectors today, Paul.

Competition has clearly proven to be the catalyst for change in many parts of the public and private sectors. Hospitals are being redesigned internally, management structures are being overhauled, and supply side changes are now challenging the healthcare professionals at almost every level.

LCS expects that we will see evidence in future of a much more market-savvy and output-driven approach in UK healthcare provision, “Old” healthcare pathways will be “put away”, and the role of the consumer will be much more accepted than in the past.

Some companies inevitably are going to fall by the wayside. Others will find no problem at all in taking huge chunks out of their costs, enabling them to respond to the challenge of bringing down the price of healthcare packages. Moreover new alliances are going to be forged between healthcare professionals and the operating companies. That will help to bring the sector into the new century.

What is most interesting perhaps, as well the independent sector is going to play a new role in helping PCTs and other local government agencies in undertaking commissioning on a more informed basis. This is real “revolutionary stuff” and the consumer is probably more up for this than the BBC and many of the politicians.

Of every ten healthcare sector deals completed in the UK in the last 24 months or so, LCS will have been involved in eight or nine. That's an impressive statistic. Tell us about the deals you have worked on during the first half of the year.

We have worked on the ISIS backed Paragon UK MBO, 3i's sale of Care Principles to Four Seasons and their earlier £1500 million sale of Four Seasons itself to Three Delta, the £80m MBO of Robinia backed by Barclays Private Equity and Lloyds Capital, Lydian Capital's investment in Castlebeck, and Lifeway's £46 million secondary sale to August Equity. On all these deals we were on the winning side but we also had long nights on one or two other transactions as well.

And I understand that you are busy in the run-up to LCS IC's annual conference, scheduled for November?

Yes, indeed. 'New challenges to health and social care 2008,' is our eighth annual conference. The purpose of the event is to provide the annual forum for bringing together policymakers and senior decision-makers in the public, private and charitable/voluntary sectors in care services to review some of the challenges and opportunities that the sector faces during 2008 to 2010.

Since our maiden conference in 2000, we have consistently managed to net the top people on a regional, national and international level. This year's programme promises again to be very exciting and we anticipate a good crowd, fuelling and promoting lively and thoughtful debate.

The conference will be held at One Great George Street in Westminster on Wednesday 7 November. The keynote address will be given by Dr Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Other speakers include key figures from the Department of Health, leaders from the UK healthcare services sector and senior managers from the NHS.