Acadia Healthcare to buy UK's Partnerships in Care for $660 million

(Reuters) - Acadia Healthcare Co Inc (ACHC.O), an operator of psychiatric and substance-abuse clinics in the United States, said it would buy Partnerships in Care (PiC) for about $660 million (393.97 million pounds) to enter the UK market.

PiC, the second largest independent provider of inpatient behavioural healthcare services in the UK, had revenue of about $285 million in 2013, Acadia said in a statement.

PiC operates 23 inpatient psychiatric facilities with more than 1,200 beds.

Acadia operated 51 behavioural healthcare facilities with 4,200 beds in 23 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, as of Dec. 31.

The independent behavioural health market represents about 8 percent of the total behavioural health market in UK. It has grown at 9.2 percent annually since 2004, helped by a decline in publicly funded National Health Service (NHS) beds, Acadia said.

NHS beds for inpatient behavioural health fell from 82 percent of total beds in 2004 to 69 percent in 2012 due to budget cuts, the company said on Tuesday.

Acadia said the deal would add 17-20 cents per share to its earnings in the second half of 2014, and 40-46 cents in 2015.

The Franklin, Tennessee-based company said it had received a commitment from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to fund the deal, which it expects to close on July 1.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Joyjeet Das)