BGF exits leading care provider CSN Care Group to Clece

BGF has successfully exited its investment in leading care provider, CSN Care Group (‘CSN’). The group has been acquired by Clece Care Services, a national care provider currently operating successfully in more than 70 locations across the UK.

BGF invested £4m in the Edinburgh-headquartered CSN in December 2020. It operates a national network of branches across the UK and its care brands include Carewatch, MyLife and New Directions.

The funding provided by BGF supported CSN to grow its network and pursue selected M&A opportunities. In the period since late 2020, CSN has completed four acquisitions in Glasgow, Welwyn Garden City and Horsham, in West Sussex.

CSN has also enhanced its specialist care offering through the MyLife brand and recruited a team of nurses to develop specialist care packages. It currently delivers around 36,000 hours of care per week through its owned branches and has continued to provide high quality care throughout the challenging circumstances of the Covid pandemic.

Executive Chairman, Scott Christie, and Managing Director, Craig Hendry, founded the company in January 2019 by means of a management buyout of part of the Carewatch Group.

Clece Care Services Ltd. (CCS) is part of Clece Group, a Spanish headquartered company with over 25 years of experience across a wide range of care services. Clece employs over 75,000 people across Spain, Portugal and the UK, and has built an extensive network and reputation throughout the UK.

Scott Christie, executive chairman of CSN, said: “This is an exciting next step for CSN which will continue to expand its presence in the care sector across the UK under Clece’s ownership. BGF’s support over the last couple of years has been invaluable in allowing us to acquire like-minded and high quality businesses across the UK.”

Paddy Graham, head of Scotland for BGF, commented: “CSN has achieved incredibly rapid growth in a short period of time. The broad mix of specialist services and commitment to high quality care was one of the things that initially attracted us to CSN, as was its strategic focus on private and high-acuity services. BGF is a flexible and patient investor therefore this is an earlier exit than we are typically accustomed to however the very successful growth since investment coupled with the strong strategic fit with Clece meant that we were delighted to support an exit at this time. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Scott and his team over the past two years and look forward to seeing CSN grow as part of Clece.

Javier Roman Hernando CEO at Clece Group added: “Acquiring CSN is an important part of growing our operations across the UK. It is clear that the company’s initial management buyout, coupled with BGF’s investment, have put CSN on an exciting upward trajectory in a growing and indispensable sector.”