August exits Healthcare Homes

August Equity, a UK mid-market private equity firm, has sold its investment in Healthcare Homes, a residential care provider for the elderly, in a £75m (€93.3m) secondary buyout to Bowmark Capital.

Bowmark invested £35m of equity, with Royal Bank of Scotland providing a £40m senior debt facility and further funding for bolt-on acquisitions and development.

East Anglian based Healthcare Homes was acquired by August Equity in August 2005. Under the private equity house’s ownership, the business has grown from four homes and 100 beds to more than 800 beds across 21 homes.

In February this year, August Equity backed Healthcare Homes’ acquisition of Manorcourt Care, a privately owned care and nursing home group based in Norfolk, providing HHG with an additional 87 registered care beds. Manorcourt was Healthcare Homes’ eighth bolt-on acquisition under August Equity’s ownership.

The buyout team is led by chief executive Richard Clough, with whom Bowmark partners have worked on several investments, including: Regard Partnership, a learning disability care provider; Medscreen, a drug and alcohol testing services group; and Care UK, a health and social care provider. The management team includes finance director Graham Lomer and operations director David Bates. Like Clough, both previously worked at Care UK and have more than 20 years’ experience in the residential care sector.

This is the first investment by Bowmark’s latest fund, Bowmark Capital Partners IV, which closed on £265m in January 2008. NM Rothschild advised August Equity on the sale.