Optima Health, the UK’s leading provider of technology enabled corporate health and wellbeing solutions, is to acquire PAM Healthcare in a £100m deal.
Warrington-headquartered PAM Group was established in 2004 and is one of the UK’s leading providers of outsourced occupational health and wellbeing services, supporting over 1.5 million employees.
PAM, led by chief executive Chris Rigg (pictured), provides solutions to more than 1,500 organisations, including blue chip corporates and public sector entities, and has over 450 directly employed clinicians and a large associate clinician network.
Once completed, the transaction will mark an exit for leading UK private equity investor, LDC, which made a minority investment in 2021.
The deal is for a total cash consideration of approximately £100m, on a debt-free, cash-free, normalised working capital basis.
Listed HealthTech snaps up occupational health services firm
The acquisition cements Optima’s position as the leading provider of occupational health and wellbeing services in the UK and builds upon Optima’s existing presence in Ireland.
In previous statements Optima has been clear that it is targeting £200m revenue and £40m adjusted EBITDA in the medium term.
The acquisition will be financed partly through new committed secured debt facilities of £70m with existing banking partners HSBC and Barclays and partly through an unsecured short-term related party bridge facility of £30m with Deacon Street Partners, an entity controlled by Lord Ashcroft.
Optima’s heritage can be traced back to 1947, when the company started looking after the wellbeing of postal workers in the UK.
Jonathan Thomas, chief executive officer of Optima Health, said: “This transformational acquisition underscores our intent in delivering our stated strategic objectives and cements Optima’s position in its attractive and growing market.
“The acquisition of PAM is highly complementary and synergistic for Optima and has been a high priority target for a number of years.
“With our strong track record for delivering bolt on acquisitions and our excellent market dynamics, the board and I are very confident about our future growth trajectory.
“We are delighted to announce the acquisition of PAM, and we look forward to welcoming PAM colleagues and customers when the deal completes.”
The company anticipates revenue and cost efficiency synergies increasing to over £5m per annum once fully integrated by the end of the third financial year after completion with approximately £1.5m synergies expected in the first year.
PAM generated unaudited revenue of approximately £66.6m in the year ended 31 December 2025 with a three-year CAGR of 15.7 per cent and an unaudited adjusted EBITDA of £8.2m.
Over 90 per cent of PAM’s budgeted FY26 revenues are underpinned by existing contracts.
The UK and Ireland occupational health market is valued at approximately £1.6bn, and is forecast to grow by up to 9 per cent per annum