Edwin Coe advises on sale of £56m care home portfolio

Edwin Coe is delighted to announce that it has advised on the sale of a portfolio of six care homes which were owned and operated by Morris Care Limited to Impact Healthcare REIT plc, a UK healthcare real estate specialist investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange plc. The purchase price is £56 million, which will partly (80%) be paid in cash with the remainder in new shares in Impact Healthcare. The deal enables Morris & Company, a well-known fifth generation Shrewsbury family company, to further invest in the healthcare real estate sector, property development, construction, portfolio management and holiday rentals business.

The care home portfolio has 438 high quality beds, of which 400 have en-suite bathrooms, with five homes in Shropshire and one in Cheshire. The Morris Group has granted a licence for the homes to continue to trade under their ‘Morris Care’ brand for three years and the current operational management team will transfer to Welford Healthcare, which will operate the homes. The structure of the transaction allows Welford to take immediate operational control of the six homes, thereby avoiding a potentially lengthy transition period while regulatory approvals are sought to register the operation of the homes in new legal entities.

Lyndsey O’Loughlin, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Morris & Company commented: “This transaction represents another significant milestone in the Morris Group 153-year journey. The prompt, comprehensive and pragmatic advice delivered by every member of the Edwin Coe team made them the perfect choice as legal advisers reflecting  our own commercial philosophy  ̶  ‘Excellence as Standard’.”

Daniel Bellau (Corporate Partner) led Edwin Coe’s team alongside Nilufar Shahpanahi (Corporate Associate) and Katie Braddell (Trainee); Joanne McIvor (Property Partner) undertook the property work and Linky Trott (Head of Employment) advised on employment issues. Daniel commented “We are delighted to have successfully completed this transaction for the Morris family, a new and exciting client for the firm, in what is a key sector of expertise for Edwin Coe. I’d like to thank the team for their assistance and we wish Morris every success in their property investment plans.”

You can read more about the transaction on Impact Healthcare REIT’s website.