Cinven is to pay £1.44 billion for
Bupa's 25 UK hospitals, it has emerged.
The private equity group, which previously invested in private hospital group General Healthcare and owns private psychiatric facilities group Partnerships in Care, beat off competition from CVC, BC Partners and Terra Firma.
As a result of the move, the operation of Bupa's hospitals will be split from the private health company's medical insurance business.
However, Bupa chief executive Val Gooding insisted that patients would see no difference in service.
"We are confident we will continue to enjoy a good relationship with the hospitals group under its new ownership," Ms Gooding said.
"Our UK insurance customers will, of course, still have access to the same range of hospitals that they have always had."
The chief executive also explained that Bupa had originally invested in hospitals because of the insufficient capacity for privately-insured patients but that there has since been "a significant increase in the number of quality private hospital facilities".
Private hospital news : 19/06/2007
