BUPA has beaten Macquarie, the Australian raider of British assets, on its home turf to acquire care homes for the elderly in Australia and New Zealand worth about A$1.2 billion (£520 million).

It is understood that the purchase of Amity, Australia’s biggest group of care homes, and Guardian Healthcare of New Zealand will be announced late next week. BUPA’s interest in Amity was revealed by The Times in June.

The British health fund was competing against Macquarie and AMP Capital Investors, the Australian wealth manager, for the combined 85 care homes, owned by CVC Asia Pacific, an affiliate of the European buyout group CVC Capital Partners. The facilities cater for more than 5,000 elderly residents and a further 10,000 through a home-based care service.

The purchase by BUPA, which has made the Asia-Pacific region a priority for international expansion, comes after its sale this year of 25 of its British hospitals for £1.44 billion. It has begun talks with MBF, Australia’s second-biggest health fund, about a possible A$2 billion takeover and is waiting for regulatory approvals before making a formal offer. BUPA is keen to return to the negotiating table before the planned demutualisation of MBF at the end of the year.

BUPA Australia, in third place, has more than a million private medical insurance customers in the country after an acquisition from AXA, the international insurer, in 2003.

The sale crystalises a significant profit for CVC, which appointed Goldman Sachs to handle the deal. An Australian advisory firm last year valued the assets at between A$733 million and A$860 million. Neither BUPA nor CVC Asia Pacific would comment.

Care home operators in Australia have been seeking scale to ensure solid returns amid uncertainty over government reforms that would increase taxpayer funding for high-care facilities.

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