Care home group Medica targets €275m in IPO

French nursing and care homes group Medica aims to raise €275m ($389m) in its initial public offering, pricing its shares at €16 to €19.5 each, to finance takeovers in a fragmented market and cut debt. The offering, valuing Medica at €1.03-1.12bn including debt, comes as others like British hospital group General Healthcare Group and Italian care homes group KOS are mulling a similar move with a pick-up of financial markets from the credit crisis fuelling preparedness among investors to take risk again. If an over-allotment option of about €37.5m were to be fully exercised, Medica could raise some €287.5m, based on the low end of the offering price range, the company said on Tuesday. For now, expansion focuses on France and northern Italy, the most prosperous part of the country where Medica has been present since 2005 and which represents 10 per cent of total sales- €448.8m in 2008.