Hedge fund proposes £1bn buyout of UK’s biggest private hospital operator

Shares in Spire Healthcare jump after approach from Toscafund, founded by City figure known as ‘the Rottweiler’

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The board of Britain’s largest private hospital operator has backed a buyout proposal worth £1bn from its second biggest shareholder, a hedge fund manager known as “the Rottweiler”, sending its shares soaring by nearly 50%.

Spire Healthcare, which owns the Claremont hospital in Sheffield and St Anthony’s hospital in south London, said it had received a non-binding proposal worth 250p a share from funds advised by the activist investor Toscafund Asset Management.