Farleys and Pierce advise Springhill Care Group on sale to Prime Life

The Corporate teams at Farleys Solicitors and Pierce Accountants have advised Ken and Nicola Nolan the owners of Springhill Care Group, on a sale that sees the group become a part of Leicester-based Prime Life, a UK wide provider of health and social care services operating more than 60 purpose built care homes.

Springhill Care Group is a provider of nursing, residential, rehabilitation, dementia and day care for adults in the Lancashire and Bristol areas.

The acquisition involved a pre-completion reorganisation of the Springhill Care Group including removing Springboard, Business Support Ltd and its head office in Accrington out of the group. The six remaining group companies were then sold to Prime Life, who received two separate funding streams. The sale included the three main trading companies which operated three separate residential care homes - Springhill Care Home in Accrington, Birch Green Care Centre in Skelmersdale and Riversway Care Home Bristol.

Springhill Care Group’s legal team was led by Debbie King, Partner at Farleys who dealt with all of the corporate aspects of the acquisition, assisted by Jenny Goodwin.

The deal also involved complex employment issues and the sale and leaseback of three main care home properties as part of the acquisition, which were dealt with by Victoria Mitchell and Stephen Greenwood of Farleys, respectively.

Debbie King commented:  “As longstanding clients of Farleys for over 20 years it has been a pleasure to work with Ken and the Springhill team. They have built a fantastic well run business which has won numerous awards and accolades and has gone from strength to strength under their management and it’s been great to be able to assist them throughout their business journey."

Paul Warren of Pierce Accountants of Blackburn provided financial advice to the Springhill Care Group having worked with the group for over 36 years from its inception to its sale. Paul was instrumental in putting the structure of the deal together.

Paul Warren of Pierce commented: “Having been involved in advising this incredibly successful award winning and respected care business from its commencement through to this sale and seeing its growth in this period has been a privilege.  Working with and advising Ken and his team has been a pleasure and we wish Ken and Nicola a long, happy and well-deserved retirement.”

Ken Nolan, former chairman of Springhill Care Group, said: “We could not have wished for a better team than Debbie and Paul together with their colleagues at Farleys and Pierce – as ever they provided outstanding levels of advice and support throughout this successful transaction.

“Whilst it is with a degree of sadness that I am retiring from Springhill, an organisation we have built as a team over the last 36 years, I am looking forward to retirement and I’m confident that I am handing over the business to people who are equally committed and the care homes are in good hands for the future wellbeing of everyone including the residents and staff.”