The Board said the cash and stock offer from Mediclinic "significantly undervalues Spire and its prospects".
Companies: Mediclinic International Plc, Spire Healthcare Group PLC
Spire Healthcare (LON: SPI) has said today it has rejected Mediclinic's (LON: MDC) preliminary and conditional proposal to acquire the Group after it made the offer last week.
Spire is one of the UK's largest private hospital operators, with 38 sites throughout England, Wales and Scotland.
The proposal, which was made up of 150p in cash and 0.232 new Mediclinic shares per Spire share valued each Spire share at 298.6p per share, a 30% markup on its closing price on the day before the offer made.
The Board of Spire unanimously rejected the offer, saying it:
"Significantly undervalues Spire and its prospects."
Mediclinic, the South African based private hospital group with operations in Africa, Switzerland and the UAE, is already Spire's largest shareholder with a 29.9% stake.
MDC confirmed the rejected proposal in a separate RNS statement this morning and said it was "considering its position".
Shares in Spire jumped 11% to 290p in early morning trading on Monday.
The stock is regaining some of the ground it lost last month after the release of its half-year report, which stated Revenues in July and August were "significantly lower" than anticipated. It also said this trend, caused by a reduction in NHS referrals, "appeared to be continuing" into September.
Spire currently trades at an earnings multiple of 16x versus the industry median of 23x and has a market cap of c. £1bn, while the offer from Mediclinic values the company at £1.3bn.
