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A southwest-based nursing home operator has expanded its coverage with the acquisition of a business in Wiltshire.

Avon Care Homes, which has two country house-style nursing homes in the region, has bought Sutton Veny House, a Grade II listed manor house that provides residential nursing care for the elderly.

The acquisition, which was completed for an undisclosed sum, adds 28 residential spaces to Avon Care’s portfolio, increasing its capacity to almost 100 - a figure that is set to grow.

Sutton Veny has planning permission and listed building consent to expand the property, which Avon Care will take advantage of to upgrade the home to accommodate 35 residents.

The sale was managed by the Bristol office of business agent Christie Finance, which arranged the debt to fund the deal with Bank of Ireland.

The bank’s team was led by relationship director Jon Pike who has 10 years experience of working with healthcare companies.

Pike said the bank was approached to help Avon Care build its portfolio. “The Sutton Veny home is a stunning building and fits well with Avon Care’s strategy of developing a portfolio of character homes in period properties.

“In this case our priority was to provide maximum funding for the new acquisition through re-financing the existing portfolio,” he added. “Being local was a definite advantage and enabled us to complete the transaction smoothly and quickly.”

Avon Care’s owner, Christina Bila, said Bank of Ireland came highly recommended to back the deal. “The whole process of organising the finance and completing the purchase was made a lot simpler because we were dealing with a local team who specialise in the care sector. Everyone knew what we wanted to achieve and we worked well together to make it happen.”

Bila received legal advice from Withy King of Bath and appointed Cheltenham-based chartered accountant Hazlewoods LLP to manage a financial due diligence review of the target business.

Hazlewoods’ team was led by Norman Webber, lead partner in the firm’s Cheltenham-based corporate finance team.

Webber, who was supported by John Lucas, said the firm was approached to work on the deal due to its experience in the long-term care sector, Hazlewoods being the UK’s leading advisers of acquisition financial advisory and due diligence to the care sector in sub £40 million transactions.

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