Freeths advise on £100m+ care home deal

Freeths, including lawyers within its specialist Care Team, have advised longstanding client LNT Group on the corporate sale of 24 care homes to Anchor in a deal worth more than £100m. LNT is the UK’s leading purpose-built residential care home developer, providing complete turnkey solutions for operators, as well as running care homes through its subsidiary Ideal Carehomes.

Freeths have many years experience advising clients in the care sector; combining expertise in real estate, tax and corporate aspects required by this deal. Corporate Partner Karl Jansen led the transaction for LNT, supported by Sarah Forshaw (Corporate) and Thomas Golding (Real Estate) from the firm’s Care Team.

Anchor, providers of housing and care to the elderly, takes on 24 of the homes previously run by Ideal Carehomes, with employees at the homes and a number of support staff transferring to Anchor. The homes, located in the north and midlands, provide a total of 1,317 en-suite rooms for older people including those with dementia, and brings the number of homes operated by Anchor up to 114.

Philip Raven of LNT Group, said:

“The LNT Group has worked with Freeths over many years, and they are a key partner of the business. Their strategic input in the areas of tax, corporate and property advice are always commercial and ensure we get transactions over the line. We’d like to thank the whole team for their professionalism and commitment throughout the deal”.

Jon Smart, who heads Freeths’ care team commented:

“It’s great to have been involved in one of the biggest care sector deals this year. Although the sector is facing challenges, there is still a market for high quality homes, as evidenced by high-end operators like Anchor and Ideal Carehomes which are running modern and efficient homes because they have invested in the long term future of those facilities”.