Brosnan won’t float Barchester yet

SOURCES close to Denis Brosnan, former boss of the Kerry Group, have dismissed reports that he will float the British nursing home group, Barchester Healthcare.

Neither Mr Brosnan or Barchester’s chief executive, Mike Parsons, was available for comment.

Last year the British based chain announced a strong increase in profits, up 39% to stg£3.9m, while turnover was up 38% at stg£38m for the year ending December 2002.

The group has expanded rapidly over 18 months and its improvement in fortunes has been considerable.

Barchester is a privately owned Plc taken over by Grove Ltd in which Mr Brosnan is a shareholder.

That company emerged from Leading Sires, founded by Mr Brosnan and horse breeder John Magnier some years ago to supply the global market with top class race horses. The group then evolved into the leisure business through Leisure Holdings.

Latterly it has focused its attention on nursing homes for the elderly in Britain.

In last year’s annual report Mr Brosnan spoke of the need for providing high quality health care in the British market.

‘The operating environment is improving.... The group stands to benefit.’

His comments were interpreted as an indication that the group was thinking of going public, but the report said there were no immediate plans to bring the company to the market. Mr Brosnan bought 711,000 shares in Barchester last year at stg£0.44p each while the group spent over stg£25m buying up nursing homes, now controlling 37 in the south of England, and further aggressive expansion appears to be on the cards.

Mr Brosnan had a hugely successful career as chief executive of Kerry Group which he took from a small dairy company to one of the top players in the global food market.

The possibility of him taking Barchester public cannot be ruled out but the company has operated discreetly. It looks as if it will remain so unless something dramatic happens requiring the group to go public.