UK’s biggest private hospital provider Spire in talks on sale to private equity
The UK’s biggest private hospital provider, Spire Healthcare, is in talks about a sale to private equity that could lead to it being delisted from the London Stock Exchange,The company, which owns the Claremont hospital in Sheffield and St Anthony’s hospital in south London, said on Monday that Bridgepoint Advisers and Triton Investments Advisers were “amongst the parties” with which it was in talks,Its shares jumped 18%, making Spire the top riser on the FTSE 250 on Monday,Spire said talks were at an early stage, adding: “There can be no certainty that any offer will be made,”It first announced a strategic review of its operations in September, saying it was in discussions with several parties to explore options including a potential sale of the business.
The private healthcare provider runs 38 hospitals and more than 50 clinics, medical centres and consulting rooms across England, Wales and Scotland.It was founded in 2007 with the acquisition and rebranding of 25 Bupa hospitals, and floated on the stock market in 2014.Spire acquired a string of other sites, and also built two new hospitals, in Manchester and Nottingham.It has come under pressure from investors, led by Harwood Capital Management, which told the Times last September that it felt Spire’s share price failed “to reflect the company’s value, most notably its unencumbered hospital portfolio worth in excess of £1.4bn, and its occupational health business”.
The board, which is chaired by the former Kingfisher boss Sir Ian Cheshire, responded by launching the review of the business.The company said in December that annual adjusted core profit would be at the bottom end of its guidance range of £270m to £285m.While more people have been paying for private treatments out of their own pockets, and there has been an increase in patients with health insurance, work it carries out on behalf of the NHS has slowed.Shire blamed budgetary restrictions at integrated care boards, which are responsible for planning, funding, and overseeing NHS services in a local area, and replaced clinical commissioning groups in England in 2022.The company said NHS volumes were a “material uncertainty” across the sector, and that the health service’s proposed annual tariff uplift for 2026-27 fell “significantly short” of the rate of inflation.
NHS work makes up about 30% of Spire’s revenue and has provided a steady income stream.The company’s chief executive, Justin Ash, has talked of an “integrated system” in which Spire and other private healthcare chains help reduce NHS waiting lists and “unlock growth” by helping return the long-term sick to work.There are growing concerns among the public and NHS staff about creeping privatisation of the health service, leading to a two-tiered system in which access to treatment is dependent on wealth.Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has defended the growing use of the private sector, while saying providers must “pull their weight” and not take resources away from the NHS.
Ignore the snobbery and get into blended whisky
We have Robert Burns to thank for perhaps the greatest poem about any dish ever – a poem so good that it inspires an entire nation to dedicate an evening of each year to eating haggis, even though most people find it kind of gross.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.No? If the “Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race” were that delicious, we’d all be eating it all the time, surely? And yet Burns’ Address to a Haggis is enticing enough to dispel any such doubts just once a year
Helen Goh’s recipe for Breton butter cake with marmalade | The sweet spot
A Breton butter cake is a proud product of Brittany’s butter-rich baking tradition: dense, golden and unapologetically indulgent. True to its origins, my version uses salted butter, with an added pinch of flaky salt to sharpen the flavour. It also takes a small detour from tradition: a slick of marmalade brings a fragrant bitterness, while a handful of ground almonds softens the overall richness and lends a tender crumb. The result is still buttery and luxurious, but with a brighter, more aromatic edge.Brief stints in the freezer help firm up the dough between layers, making it easier to spread the marmalade without disturbing the base
Gordon Ramsay says tax changes will make restaurants ‘lambs to the slaughter’
The celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has accused the government of cooking up a kitchen nightmare at restaurants across the country with tax changes that he says will make hospitality businesses “lambs to the slaughter”.Ramsay, whose company operates 34 restaurants in the UK including Bread Street Kitchen, Pétrus and Lucky Cat, said the industry was “facing a bloodbath”. He said restaurants were closing every day as a result of rising business rates, which came on top of higher energy, staffing and ingredient costs and little growth in consumer spending.“I’ve never seen it so bad,” Ramsay told the Standardnews site. “When I look ahead to April, when the budget measures come in, I think those of us in hospitality are lambs to the slaughter
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Even if you have no truck with Blue Monday, Quitter’s Day or any of the other new-year wheezes concocted by enterprising marketeers, the last weeks of January can feel like a bit of a confused slog. Seasonal colds and lurgies abound. The weather is generally at its rain-lashed and blackly overcast worst. Well-intentioned attempts at self-improvement or abstemiousness are starting to creak in the face of a desire for whatever scraps of midwinter comfort we can find.Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to food and, more specifically, the daily puzzle of how to have something nourishing as a working lunch
Rum is booming but only Jamaican classics have the true funk
After Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica last October, rum lovers anxiously awaited news from the island’s six distilleries. Hampden Estate, in the parish of Trelawney to the north, was right in the hurricane’s path, and the furious winds deprived its historic buildings of their roofs and the palm trees of their fronds. Then came more alarming rumours: the dunder pits had overflowed.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pasta e fagioli with coconut, spring onion, chilli and lemon | A kitchen in Rome
Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, under the banner of story, art and folklore, the Roman publishing house Newton Compton published a series of 27 books about regional Italian cooking. Some, such as Jeanne Carola Francesconi’s epic 1965 La Cucina Napoletana, were reprints of established books, while others were specially commissioned for the series. There is considerable variation; some of the 20 regions occupy 650 densely filled pages, sometimes spread over two volumes, while other regions have 236 pages with larger fonts, with everything in between. All of which is great, although I can’t help feeling affectionate towards the regions with 14-point font.In the face of the vast variation of regional culinary habits, knowledge and rituals, I also feel affectionate towards the common traditions; those that are specific to a place, but at the same time that cross local and national borders, as well as for the stories of the ingredients
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