H.I.G. Realty Invests in a U.K. Care Home Operator and Upgrades its Senior Management Team

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AffordableCare–H.I.G. Capital, LLC (“H.I.G.”), a leading global alternative investment firm with $48 billion of equity capital under management, announced today that an affiliate has invested in Lovett Care (“Lovett” or “Company”), a growing care home operator, and appointed Craig Cook as Executive Chairman and Keith Crockett as CEO.

Based in Cheshire, Lovett owns and operates a portfolio of eight care homes with a total capacity exceeding 500 beds. With over a decade of track record, the Company offers a variety of care options, including residential care, dementia care, day care, palliative care, nursing care and respite care in Staffordshire, Cheshire and the North West. Lovett focuses on the underserved affordable premium private-pay sector aimed at providing the highest quality of care through modern facilities featuring high-end furnishings.

Craig Cook has close to 30 years of experience in the healthcare and finance industry, 15 of which with U.K. senior care provider Barchester Healthcare. Keith Crockett has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare and finance industry where he held senior and executive roles at Avery Healthcare and Welltower.

Riccardo Dallolio, Managing Director and Head of H.I.G. Europe Realty in London commented: “We are delighted to complete this transaction and make these senior appointments. Craig and Keith’s wealth of experience and proven track record to build businesses is an excellent fit for our objective to create one of the leading players in U.K. elderly care sector. This is in line with our strategy of working with best in sector management teams and of investing in platforms with strong underlying secular trends. With platforms in the cold-storage, self-storage, film-production, life-sciences and PRS sectors, we are focused on building best-in-class businesses with critical mass.”

Stelios Theodosiou, Managing Director at H.I.G. Europe Realty, added: “The transaction demonstrates our ability to invest in operating platforms with a strong programmatic element. Since our investment, Lovett has grown its portfolio from two to eight homes. With the appointment of Craig as Executive Chairman and Keith as CEO, we believe we have in place a best-in-class management team to grow Lovett into one of the leading private pay elderly care operators in the UK. Having one of Lovett homes nominated as a finalist in the UK healthcare design awards, demonstrates the level of quality of care and offering we intend to bring to market.”

Craig Cook, Executive Chairman of Lovett commented: “The Lovett Care team are very excited to welcome Keith and look forward to working with him. With Keith’s depth of knowledge and experience in the industry, we are confident in our ability to grow our business rapidly. With H.I.G.’s aspirations to continue growing in the sector, I am confident that under the leadership of Keith we can make Lovett into one of the leading, high-quality elderly care providers in the UK.”

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global alternative assets investment firm with $48 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Bogotá, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:

1. H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
2. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
3. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
4. H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.

* Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates

Contacts

Riccardo Dallolio

Managing Director

rdallolio@higrealty.com