Spire Healthcare has extended the deadline for Toscafund Asset Management to finalise a possible 250 pence per share cash offer to 3 September 2026, the fifth such extension since Toscafund's first approach in May. Due diligence has now concluded and Toscafund has cited finalising financing arrangements as the sole remaining condition.

Spire Healthcare Group plc (LSE: SPI) runs 38 hospitals and more than 60 clinics across England and Wales, treating approximately 1.4 million patients annually and leading the UK private sector in knee and hip operations by volume. The 250 pence offer represents a 66% premium to Spire's closing price on 13 May 2026.

Toscafund Asset Management is a London-based investment firm led by Martin Hughes, holding approximately 18% of Spire as its second-largest shareholder, having first built a near-11% stake in 2021 while opposing a rival 250 pence offer from Ramsay Healthcare of Australia. Spire's board stated in May it would be minded to recommend the offer unanimously.

The update from the previous extension is material: due diligence is now described as concluded rather than substantially complete, narrowing the outstanding condition to financing alone. Four extensions on the basis of due diligence progress were credible; a fifth extension with due diligence complete places the delay squarely on the capital structure. Toscafund is assembling approximately £1 billion of acquisition financing, debt and institutional co-investment, that a hedge fund without permanent capital cannot fund from its own balance sheet, and that assembly is taking longer than the original August 21 deadline allowed.

The September 3 deadline is commercially significant: it falls before the Spire board's presumed autumn board review cycle, maintaining deal momentum without forcing a failed-bid outcome that would suppress Spire's share price and damage Toscafund's existing 18% position.

For the sector, five extensions on a recommended deal with concluded due diligence confirms that large-scale private equity financing of UK private hospital acquisitions remains constrained, even for assets with board support and a willing seller.

Source: thisismoney.co.uk / laingbuissonnews.com / investors.spirehealthcare.com / uk.advfn.com