We are delighted to announce that Downing has invested c.£27 million into a leading specialist and elderly residential care business in recent weeks. This investment follows the news that Downing also successfully exited a specialist residential care home to a European real estate investor in June.  

We supported an existing operator to acquire a closed 120 bedroom property near Leicester, which will be refurbished and repositioned from an elderly care home into an 80-bed specialist care facility delivering acute, needs-based services to vulnerable end users.  

We have also provided investment for a trading 59-bed, purpose-built specialist care home in Stafford and a recently constructed, 68-bed, premium, elderly residential care home in Fife, Scotland.  

This comes after Downing completed the sale and leaseback of an existing specialist care home in the West Midlands to a European asset manager.  

These transactions were led, from the Downing side, by Edmund Motley and Hannah Kenny and follow further deal activity across the elderly care, specialist care and special educational needs markets in 2023.

Mark Gross, Partner at Downing commented: “Providing expansion capital to leading care operators allows them to enhance facilities and increase capacity at a time when quality care is needed more than ever. We strongly believe in the resilience of this sector and are delighted to support these businesses making a difference in vulnerable communities across the UK. This investment activity, along with our successful exit of a care home in June, demonstrates our commitment and optimism about the space. We look forward to partnering with our existing partners and potential new partners to help them grow and continue delivering outstanding service."

As a market-leading healthcare investor, Downing continues to support businesses in this needs-based market which is generally fragmented and underserved. The specialist and elderly residential care sectors enable positive social outcomes and align with wider sustainability strategies at Downing that also deliver net environmental gain and assets that are well governed.    

Downing Development Capital is an award-winning investor focused on investment opportunities into asset-backed operating businesses. Typical investments range between £5 million and £50 million of initial funding with scope to support further growth and development and focuses on sectors including healthcare, education, housing, and other specialist sectors.  Downing has combined its private equity and real estate experience to support buy-and-build platforms in the UK, investing across the capital structure to support quality management teams in sectors with strong underlying market dynamics.

Find out more about Downing Development Capital