Caledonia sells Choice Care to Icon for £152.5m

The sale represents a 1.9x money multiple for Caledonia following a five-year holding, equivalent to a net IRR of 14.3%.

The vendor will receive £99.4m in exchange for its 87.4% stake in the company, including pre-sale dividends of £7.1m. It has also previously received £6.1m in dividend distributions during its tenure.

During Caledonia's holding period, Choice Care has increased its residential capacity from 391 beds to 514.

Previous funding
Choice Care first received PE backing in 2002, when Sovereign Capital acquired the business. Sovereign provided follow-on funding to support the bolt-ons of Orchard End Group and Truecare Group, with Choice Care also acquiring Excel Support Services during its tenure.

Caledonia then acquired Choice Care from Sovereign in an £86m EV deal in 2013. The firm invested £49.5m in the initial deal and subsequently provided £5.4m in follow-on funding.

Company
Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Bracknell, Berkshire, Choice Care provides care for individuals with learning difficulties, complex needs and challenging behavioural issues.

The company generated an operating profit of £6.1m from a turnover of £46.9m in the year ending in March 2017, according to publicly available documents.

People
Caledonia Investments – Duncan Johnson (head of unquoted investments).
Choice Care Group – Edwina Johnston (CEO).

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